Call Center Scheduling Featured Article
Elizabeth Warren's Fair Workweek Plan Would Address Erratic Scheduling
One of the biggest problems faced by call center workers is a lack of regular scheduling. Erratic and unpredictable working hours have contributed to the call center industry having on the highest turnover rates of any profession in the U.S., and recent research links erratic scheduling with negative health impacts and major quality of life issues for families.
Congressional legislation is being introduced to combat those problems, including a Fair Workweek plan led by presidential candidate and Senator Elizabeth Warren. The plan would require employers with 15 or more employers in a number of industries to give workers at least two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules. And employers would additionally need to compensate workers for changes made to those schedules, as well as give them the right to decline work hours not included on the original schedules.
The plan could have far-reaching impacts on industries like the call center, which has been beleaguered by high churn and turnover rates due to dissatisfied and unhappy employees. Warren’s plan would require employers to consider workers’ scheduling requests in good faith as well as offer a valid reason for not accepting them. Workers would also have the right to rest for at least 11 hours between shifts or else be compensated when this is not possible.
“My aim as president will be to return power to working families and to pursue an agenda of economic patriotism that puts the interests of American workers ahead of the interests of multinational corporations,” said Warren in a statement announcing the plan. She said the plan would also require companies to offer qualified, part-time employees additional hours before hiring new employees or outside contractors. Additionally, long-term, part-time workers would have access to benefits like family medical leave and retirement benefits through the plan.
Recent research from the University of California-Berkeley and the University of California-San Francisco found that workers who received more than two weeks’ notice of their schedules had a nearly 75-percent likelihood of being happy, compared to 65 percent of workers who received two days’ notice. The study, which examined data from nearly 28,000 U.S. workers, found that only 39 percent of workers at the 80 largest retail firms had regular work schedules. And one in four retail workers reported having “on-call scheduling,” where they were required to be available to work on certain days without a guarantee of being assigned an actual shift or getting paid.
Edited by Maurice Nagle