Washington, D.C., Restaurants May Get Stuck with Mandated Scheduling

“I should be able to place my best people at the best times,” declares Results Thru Strategy’s Len Ghilani. Tough to argue with that logic.

Yet leave it to local government to find a way. A Washington, D.C., city council committee has voted by a 3 to 2 margin to send a controversial scheduling proposal to city council for a vote this coming week. Should it pass, operators won’t be free to make such assignments if their companies operate more than 40 units nationally.

In short, if the measure becomes law, it would mean that these companies — mainly chains — would be prohibited from altering employees’ schedules less than two weeks in advance. Extra hours, moreover, would go to part-time workers in place of additional hires. Adios just-in-time scheduling, which helps operators control labor costs.

Ghilani, a veteran operator himself, doesn’t think that’s a good idea. For one thing, it will badly affect the culture of individual restaurants and interrupt service. “No matter the brand, each restaurant within it operates as its own unit. There’s a definite ‘live, work, play component.’ Everything is different in branded restaurants except the menu and pricing, including their challenges.”

For another, there’s the matter of skill level and service. “Your daytime servers are typically not as qualified as nighttime servers. So if I need a highly qualified server on at night, this law says I have to offer it to an existing part-timer who may not be as qualified yet,” he explains. “The guest experience won’t be the same.”

Proponents of the measure concede just-in-time-scheduling helps trim labor costs, “but it wreaks havoc on the lives of low-wage workers, making it difficult to schedule child care, commit to a second job or take part-time classes. The practice also results in erratic pay,” reports the Washington Post.