L.A. City Council passes law to give retail workers with erratic hours more stability — Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — L.A. County supervisors Tuesday approved regulations giving some local retail workers more predictable hours for the first time in state history.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the rules, which will be in effect for three years, which aim to provide more stability to retail workers who are required to work irregular hours.
Under the ordinance the county is required to develop a plan that will provide workers with four different shifts.
Some are expected to work six days a week with a six-hour day while others will work five days a week, with two- to four-hour days, and others will work seven days a week, with three to four-hour days.
Many workers in L.A. County are expected to start working more hours in an attempt to increase sales, though some analysts have questioned whether workers are really getting any more hours.
“No matter how many hours you’re given, you’re still working a seven-day week,” said Supervisor Bill Wielechowski, the bill’s main author.
But a spokesperson for California Retailers Association criticized the changes, saying the changes are simply a way of requiring more work to make up for understaffed retailers.
“The new law is really more a way of saying, let’s give retail workers even more work than they’re getting now,” said the spokesperson, Sean Haggard. “We’re not talking, ‘Oh, we’re going to give you more hours.’ We’re talking about giving retail workers extra work, which is what retailers have always done.”
The new rules will give workers more time off but it will also increase the number of hours they’re required to work.
The board also directed the county to provide updates on the number of workers who will be affected and the percentage of retail workers and managers who will be affected.
The supervisors approved the changes despite a campaign led by some activists to get rid of the eight-hour workday in California.
The new rules, which now must be
