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(Added by Ord. No. 187,710, Eff. 4/1/23.)
Section
185.00 Purpose.
185.01 Definitions.
185.02 Good Faith Estimate.
185.03 Right to Request Changes to Work Schedule.
185.04 Work Schedule.
185.05 Additional Work Hours Offered to Current Employees Before Hiring New Workers.
185.06 Predictability Pay for Work Schedule Changes.
185.07 Coverage for Missing Work Shift.
185.08 Rest Between Shifts.
185.09 Retention and Inspection of Records.
185.10 Electronic Notice.
185.11 Notice and Posting of Employee Rights.
185.12 Retaliatory Action Prohibited.
185.13 No Waiver of Rights.
185.14 Coexistence with Other Available Relief.
185.15 Conflicts.
185.16 Severability.
The Los Angeles economy includes over 140,000 Angelenos working in the retail sector. According to a recent University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) study, eight in ten retail workers have unpredictable, last- minute, and fluctuating work weeks over which they have no control. Approximately 77 percent of retail workers receive less than one week notice of their schedules or changes to their schedules.
The unpredictability of work schedules endemic in the retail industry creates many socioeconomic burdens on workers of large retail businesses. For example, the inability to predict the number of hours retail employees will actually work or the reduction of scheduled work hours leads to income insecurity. Further, unpredictable scheduling makes it difficult for workers to arrange childcare. Forty-five percent of workers who need childcare cannot use childcare services because of erratic work schedules. Unpredictable scheduling also makes it difficult for retail workers to pursue educational goals. Forty-three percent of student retail workers missed classes due to scheduling conflicts.
Retail workers who work a store’s closing shift and then work the next day’s opening shift work what is known as “clopening” shifts. Workers scheduled for “clopening” shifts often have less than ten hours rest between shifts. At least 44 percent of retail workers have experienced “clopening” shifts. When workers do not have an adequate time of rest between shifts, they are unable to care for themselves and their families.
Many retail workers are assigned part-time schedules and face underemployment. Large retailers often maintain a 24-hour window of shopping time, which requires additional workers. When retail employers have an increased demand for work, some retailers choose to hire additional part-time or temporary workers instead of offering the additional hours to their existing part-time workers. The UCLA study found that over 70,000 retail workers desire more hours and the majority of them want to work forty hours or more each week.
Cities and states across the country have responded to a growing call for a more predictable work week. Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, and Oregon have adopted laws that protect working families by ensuring stable and predictable work hours, opportunities for additional work hours, healthier work weeks with adequate rest, and a greater voice in deciding when and how many hours to work.
The City of Los Angeles has consistently championed its workers by adopting laws designed to protect workers’ rights and improve their socioeconomic status. For example, the City has adopted the Minimum Wage and the Living Wage Ordinances, the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance, the First Source Hiring Ordinance, and various Worker Retention Ordinances.
The City, as a provider of social services, has a significant interest in the promotion of improved working conditions and better wages for retail workers. This ordinance seeks to promote the health, safety, and welfare of retail workers in the City by providing them with a more predictable work schedule that ensures stability for themselves and their families and the opportunity to work more hours. Retail workers that are rested, able to plan for childcare, and rely less on the City’s social services benefit the City.
The following definitions shall apply to this article:
A. “City” means the City of Los Angeles.
B. “Designated Administrative Agency” means the Office of Wage Standards (OWS) of the Bureau of Contract Administration, which shall bear administrative responsibilities under this article.
C. “Employee” means any individual who:
1. In a particular work week performs at least two hours of work within the geographic boundaries of the City for an Employer; and
2. Qualifies as an employee entitled to payment of a minimum wage from any Employer under the California minimum wage law as provided under Section 1197 of the California Labor Code and wage orders published by the California Industrial Welfare Commission.
For purposes of this article, a worker is presumed to be an Employee of an Employer, and an Employer has the burden to demonstrate that a worker is a bona fide independent contractor and not an Employee.
D. “Employer” means any Person who:
1. Is identified as a retail business in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) within the retail trade categories and subcategories 44 through 45; and
2. Directly, indirectly or through an agent or any other Person, including through the services of a temporary service or staffing agency, exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of any Employee; and
3. Has 300 employees globally. For purposes of determining the number of employees of an Employer, the following shall be included:
(a) Any employee over whom the Employer directly, or through an agent or any other Person, including through the services of a temporary service or staffing agency, exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions.
(b) Any employee of an Employer’s subsidiary provided that the subsidiary is identified as a retail business pursuant to Section 185.01 D.1.
(c) Any employee of any Person operating a business pursuant to a Franchise, provided that the franchisee’s business is over 15,000 square feet and identified as a retail business pursuant to Section 185.01 D.1.
Any Person or business whose employees are included in the count of total employees of the Employer, including those identified in Subsections 3.(b) and 3.(c) above, qualifies as an Employer for purposes of this section.
E. “Franchise” means a contract or agreement, either expressed or implied, whether oral or written, between two or more persons by which:
1. A franchisee is granted the right to engage in the business of offering, selling, or distributing goods or services under a marketing plan or system prescribed in substantial part by a franchisor; and
2. The operation of the franchisee’s business pursuant to that plan or system is substantially associated with the franchisor’s trademark, service mark, trade name, logotype, advertising, or other commercial symbol designating the franchisor or its affiliate; and
3. The franchisee is required to pay, directly or indirectly, a Franchise fee.
F. “On-Call Shift” means any Shift for which an Employee must, less than 24 hours in advance of the start of the Shift, either contact the Employer or Employer’s designee, or wait to be contacted by the Employer or Employer’s designee, for the purpose of determining whether the Employee must report to work.
G. “Person” means any person, association, organization, partnership, business trust, limited liability company, or corporation.
H. “Predictability Pay” means the compensation paid to an Employee for changes made by an Employer to an Employee’s Work Schedule as described in Section 185.06. Predictability Pay shall be calculated on an hourly basis at the Employee’s regular rate of pay. This compensation is in addition to any wages earned for work performed by that Employee.
I. “Shift” means the consecutive hours an Employee is required to work including meal and rest periods.
J. “Work Schedule” means the schedule of the hours, days, and times, including On-Call Shifts, when an Employer requires an Employee to work or be on-call to work.
A. Before hiring an Employee, an Employer shall provide each new Employee a written good faith estimate of the Employee’s Work Schedule.
B. The good faith estimate shall notify a new Employee of their rights under this article. In the alternative, the Employer may provide the new Employee with a copy of the poster required by Section 185.11.
C. An Employer shall provide a written good faith estimate of an Employee’s Work Schedule within ten days of an Employee’s request.
D. A good faith Work Schedule estimate shall not constitute a binding, contractual offer. However, if an Employee’s actual work hours substantially deviate from the good faith estimate, an Employer must have a documented, legitimate business reason, unknown at the time the good faith Work Schedule estimate was provided to the Employee, to substantiate the deviation.
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