On-Call Retail Shifts Cause Workers Undue Stress

When we think of mill workers and day laborers, centuries old images of dock workers and crew men waiting in a lineup to see if the boss will pick them for the job pops into the mind.

However, so-called day labor practices are still in place and exist in a retail setting.

Nowadays, retail workers contend with a scheduling practice known as the “on-call” shift scheduling.

While the practice is common across the nation, workers in populous states like New York and California may be particularly hard hit.

In on-call scheduling, workers are required to call the manager to find out if they will receive any working hours that day. This practice causes unnecessary stress for the employees and creates scheduling headaches for those who must juggle other responsibilities.  

When these workers call in they must hope they are assigned enough hours over the course of the month to pay their rent and other bills. These on-call employees must also hope that their scheduled on-call hours do not interfere with school schedules or medical and dental appointments.

The Problem with On-Call Scheduling

While the modern retail sector markets itself as offering employees “flexibility” and “dynamism,” it also forces retail employees to be tied to a tyrannical daily schedule. Many workers contend they are forced to live paycheck-to-paycheck, but in some cases it is more like hour-to-hour.

Recently, the Center for Law and Social Policy, Retail Action Project (RAP) and Women Employed published a policy brief regarding unfair scheduling. It called out on-call retail schedules as having a detrimental impact on wage workers.

Retail wage workers are often already burdened by the fact that their part-time jobs do not pay a living wage, so having to deal with on-call scheduling only increases their stress.

Many California retail workers must call in first thing in the day to see if there are any hours available for them to work that day, wait to receive a confirmation from their boss or manager, and ultimately only receive a four-hour on-call work shift.

For many, the costs of commuting to and from work and the disruption to the day may make the short on-call retail shift they receive hardly seem worth the trouble.

All these drawbacks beg the question: if on-call job schedules cause workers in California and other states so much grief and stress, why have they become so popular in the retail industry?

For one, computerized staffing programs employed by popular retailers like Walmart and Jamba Juice allow the employer to efficiently schedule more employees during high sale seasons, and less during slow sales weeks.

While these computerized on-call programs benefit employers, it causes many scheduling issues for employees. Even full-time employees end up working erratic on-call shifts like their part-time counterparts, and are sometimes pressured by their managers to work extra hours on very short notice during busier retail weeks.

On-Call Lawsuit

On-call scheduling requires retail workers to give up control over various areas in their lives and makes it difficult to have a steady stream of income, to make a budget, to make arrangements for childcare, or take college courses. As a result, an investigation has been launched to determine if on-call scheduling violates labor laws in California.

If you are California retail worker who is forced to work an on-call schedule, know that you have rights and may be eligible to take part in a on-call class action lawsuit investigation.