State GA Update

Restrictive Scheduling defeated for 2020 By Nicole Vukonich

As you read this, the 2020 Washington State Legislative Session is wrapping up. This year’s short, 60-day legislative session began on Jan. 13 and saw more bills introduced in the first three weeks than any other short session in recent memory. In fewer than four weeks more than 1,700 new bills were introduced. That doesn’t count the bills that were introduced from last session that were still alive for the second year of the biennium.

With an emphasis on labor and workforce, the State Government Affairs Team worked to activate workers and employers against one of the largest potential policy hurdles of the session: restrictive scheduling.

As a refresher, Senate Bill 5717 and House Bill 1491 proposed a statewide policy that would be even more restrictive than Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance that went into effect July 1, 2017. For the industries targeted in the bill -- food service, hospitality and retail-- the scheduling flexibility these industries depend on would be eliminated, with hefty penalties in place for employers.

Since the last session, Washington Hospitality Association State Government Affairs Team members participated in stakeholder meetings. These meetings proved to be ineffective, as proponents of the bills would not consider the challenges and potential solutions hospitality brought to the table. Your team identified four main areas of concern with the bill:

1. Addressing the requirement to offer extra hours to existing staff before hiring new staff. 2. Creating a voluntary waiver or standby list for employees. 3. Addressing how franchisees are treated. 4. Addressing the seasonal and weather-dependent nature of food service and hospitality.

With clear guidance from Government Affairs Committee chairs and members, the best option for

hospitality was to oppose this legislation this session. During the abbreviated scheduling hearing in the Senate

Labor & Commerce Committee, Steve Simmons from C&G

Public House in Kennewick testified on the difficulties providing advanced notice to employees at Martin Stadium in Pullman. The

committee also heard from veteran career full-service employees from the Full Service Workers Alliance.

Senate Bill 5717 was declared dead after failing to advance from the committee ahead of the first policy cutoff. Since then, the State Government Affairs Team has confirmed that the bill will not move forward this session.

Although we successfully defeated this bill again this session, the fight is far from over. It will return next session.

In a bid to engage more workers in this debate, as it is a policy that will deeply affect them, we launched a workersonly opt out campaign. With your help in activating your workforces we had 1,063 workers sign up to tell lawmakers they wanted to opt out of the law. These workers sent in over 2,100 emails to their lawmakers telling them the law did not work for them and they wanted out.

This campaign is the largest and most successful campaign targeted at workers the association has ever accomplished.

MORE THAN MEDICAL Visit healthcarewashington.org for your benefits package needs.

Washington Hospitality Benefits Specialist | 855-919-1316 Find out more at: healthcarewashington.org