A "Bill of Rights" for San Francisco's Retail Workers

[Sherman A1]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/25414-a-bill-of-rights-for-san-francisco’s-retail-workers

In April 2011, Jessy Lancaster, then 28, was hired as a part-time cashier for the discount clothing store Ross Dress for Less in San Francisco. At the time, the city's hourly minimum wage was $9.92 an hour; in one of the most expensive areas of the country, Lancaster wanted to work as many hours as possible. Unfortunately, even making herself available six days out of the week—including Saturday and Sunday—wasn't enough.

"It didn't make a difference," Lancaster says. Most weeks, she would be scheduled for 12 to 20 hours, despite telling a manager that she was willing and able to do more. "It was piecemeal," she says. "I would usually work four to six hour shifts. Four hours here. Four hours there."

As someone who wanted to work 40 hours a week but was unable to do so, Lancaster was what San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar calls an "involuntarily part-time worker." The lack of sufficient hours doesn't just force such individuals to struggle to pay their bills; the unpredictability of work schedules makes it difficult to plan the rest of one's life. Lancaster says she never knew if she was going to be working first thing in the morning or late at night. For workers with family caretaking responsibilities or health concerns, this can make scheduling childcare or medical appointments almost impossible. It also creates difficulties for people trying to work more than one job or attend classes.

On Tuesday, July 29, Mar introduced the first half of a "Retail Workers Bill of Rights," which aims to help Lancaster and people like her attain stable employment, to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Supervisor David Chiu will introduce the second half of the bill in September. The two bills only apply to what San Francisco defines as "formula retail": stores, restaurants, hotels and banks with 11 or more outlets nationwide. According to Jobs with Justice San Francisco, a coalition of labor unions and community organizations that helped craft the bills, there are about 1,250 such businesses in San Francisco, employing about 100,000 people. (San Francisco is also currently considering modifications to the definition of formula retail, which would expand the bills' scope to include gyms, insurance companies and check-cashing outlets.)