On May 30, 2017, the New York City Council passed the "Fair Workweek" legislative package. The five laws, described by Mayor de Blasio as the "most progressive restaurant rights laws in the country," will take effect in six months and, according to proponents, will improve basic employments rights for the 65,000 workers in the City's fast food industry and, to a lesser extent, certain retail employees. Similar laws have been enacted in Seattle, San Francisco and Emeryville, California.

Below is a summary of the four new laws that will apply to the fast food industry. The laws define covered fast food establishments as those that have a primary purpose of serving food or drink, where patrons order and pay before eating, and that are part of a chain with thirty or more establishments nationally.

  • Law 1396 requires these employers to provide fourteen days advance notice of work schedules to employees and pay premiums to employees when hours are changed on short notice. Depending on the length of notice, employers must pay premiums ranging from ten to seventy-five dollars.
  • Law 1388 restricts "clopenings" of fewer than eleven hours between shifts. "Clopenings" describe back-to-back shifts where the employee closes at the end of the first shift, and opens at the beginning of the second shift. Employers are required to pay the employee $100 for each clopening.
  • Law 1395 requires these employers to offer shifts to existing employees before hiring new employees.
  • Law 1384 allows these employees to designate a portion of their wages to a registered not-for-profit organization of their choice, through payroll deductions. The law does not authorize these deductions for labor organizations.

Below is a summary of the new law that will apply to the retail industry. Covered retail employers are those with twenty or more employees that are engaged primarily in the sale of consumer goods at one or more stores within the city.

  • Law 1387 bans the practice of "on-call scheduling," also referred to as "call-in scheduling," which is the practice of an employer requiring an employee to be available to work and to contact the employer, or wait to be contacted by the employer, to determine whether the employee must report to work. The law also forbids canceling or scheduling shifts with less than seventy-two hours notice unless the employee requested the time off or voluntarily traded shifts with a coworker.

In 2015, the New York Attorney General wrote to fourteen major retailers to inquire about their scheduling practices. Within months, most of the companies responded by ending on-call scheduling—a decision that has affected more than 238,000 workers nationwide. While there are no New York State laws specifically prohibiting "on-call scheduling," bills have been introduced that would discourage this practice. And there have been, and will likely continue to be, class action lawsuits brought on this issue.

Enforcement of this legislative package will fall under the jurisdiction of the City's Office of Labor Policy & Standards (OLPS). The OLPS was created in 2016 and placed by Mayor de Blasio within the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to build on the DCA's rapid effectiveness in enforcing the 2013 NYC Paid Sick Leave Law. In its own words, OLPS "enforces key municipal workplace laws, conducts original research, and develops policies that are responsive to an evolving economy and issues affecting workers in New York City, particularly people of color, women and immigrants."

The new laws become effective November 26, 2017.

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