Bob Donovan, an attorney for restaurant chains, recently told city council members he thought they needed to move extremely slowly before taking action on secure scheduling — because he didn't think it was an emergency.
"It doesn't seem like it's an emergency situation," he said.
Meanwhile, half of the workers we surveyed get their schedules no more than 1 week in advance. Three in four saw their weekly schedules vary by 8 hours or more — a week-to-week difference of a full-time work day. And 77% of all workers getting 20 hours or less per week would like to work more hours.
This is beyond being flexible with the truth. This is living in denial.
Here's what Donovan said to City Council in early March:
I'm not going to be apologetic for simply requesting that this [secure scheduling] not be rushed.
Sounds like he wants more notice from City Council. More time to plan. More time to figure out his next steps. Funny how when it's his time, the benefits of advance notice is pretty obvious... even to some living in such a flexible self-serving world of denial.
It doesn't seem like it's an emergency situation.
Maybe unpredictable and insecure schedules aren't an emergency for a business attorney, but for an hourly worker, the inability to make time to care for your children is an emergency. The inability to schedule your education is an emergency. And when your hours vary dramatically from week to week and you can't get the hours you need, your rent is an emergency too.