Predictive scheduling could be headed to construction
— So you’re trying to schedule a construction project. How effectively and efficiently do you think you could schedule the work if you had to abide by these rules?
- You have to provide all employees with the work schedule 14 days in advance;
- If you need to change that work schedule, you have to provide “timely notice” to affected employees;
- The employee has the right to decline to work the changed schedule.
- You have to compensate employees for any change in start or end time to the original schedule, or for a cancelled shift.
Or, let’s say the job requires additional hours beyond what was provided in that original work schedule you provided employees. In that case you have to offer the additional hours to all existing employees. If none of them are interested in the additional hours, you can then hire new people or subcontractors, BUT ONLY IF you have written confirmation from ALL existing employees that they don’t want to work the additional hours.
As crazy as that may sound, that is exactly what will happen for anyone working in Bellingham if city voters pass the “Worker’s Rights: Fair Treatment of Hourly-Wage Employees and Gig Workers” initiative that will be on the city ballot this November.
There’s much more to this initiative, including hazard pay. Read the full initiative here.
AGC’s Northern District’s Local Government Affairs has taken a strong stand against this initiative. The concern for all AGC members is that, should this initiative pass in Bellingham, it will help spread this bad idea statewide.
That’s only one initiative on the Bellingham ballot this fall that impacts construction. Another is the “Protect the Right to Organize” initiative. Read the full initiative here; below is a summary:
This measure would prohibit any person who receives City funds from using those funds to discourage unionization efforts by that person’s employees or any other employees, require recipients of City funds to segregate those funds, provide a safe harbor for non-managerial staff to engage in union protected activities, provide for administrative investigations of complaints, establish private enforcement actions, change the City’s contracting process, and allow the City to terminate contracts for violations of the prohibition.
AGC’s Northern District Local Government Affairs Committee is strongly opposed to this measure as well, and we’ll take a deeper dive into this one in the next newsletter.
For more information about these initiatives, contact AGC Northern District Manager Lance Calloway.