Earlier this year, we discussed the Ongoing Debate Over On-Call Shifts and their legal implications in regards to employers. Following the controversy, retailer giant Gap has decided to discontinue these shifts. This Staffing Industry News is important to note as more and more companies are adopting the new scheduling policy.
While on-call shifts are intended to benefit the employer, they have become widely scrutinized in recent months as they are extremely inconsistent and inconvenient for the employees. Under this policy, employers were able to require employees to come to work during busy hours and dismiss them when business slowed. However, as they are decided mere hours before the employee is to report to work, school schedules and daycare arrangements were next to impossible to plan.
Given this debate, Gap has recently announced that it will stop scheduling on-call shifts. The retailer decided to phase out the shifts over summer and is set to end the shifts completely by the end of September. While Gap did not originally respond for comment in regards to the pay schedule of its on-call employees, they are one of the first companies to have taken a public stand.
What’s more, Gap also announced that they improving scheduling for employees as they are working to give them 10 to 14 days’ notice of their schedule. CNN Money reports that Gap’s ongoing plan aims to “improve scheduling and flexibility for our employees, while continuing to drive productivity in stores.”
This change is a direct response to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accusing 12 companies, including Gap and Target, of unfair scheduling practices in April.
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