The rights of employees to request and receive work schedule changes; predictable work schedules for retail, food service, and cleaning employees; granting rule-making authority; and providing a penalty. (FE)

Unless an employer has a bona fide business reason for denying the request, the employer must approve an employee's request if it is directly related to any of the following:

1. A serious health condition of the employee.

2. Responsibilities of the employee as a caregiver for a child or other family member.

3. Enrollment of the employee in an educational or training program or program of study that leads to a recognized postsecondary credential.

4. Work scheduling conflicts of an employee who is part time with the employee's other employment.

If an employer denies an employee's request, the employer must inform the employee of the reasons for denial, including whether any of the reasons is a bona fide business reason. The term “bona fide business reason” is defined in the bill.

Predictable work schedules for retail, food service, and cleaning employees The bill provides that an employer that employs an employee in certain retail, food service, or cleaning occupations (service employee) must provide the service employee with a written copy of the service employee's work schedule on or before the service employee's first day of work. With certain exceptions, if an employer changes a service employee's work schedule, the employer must provide the new work schedule no later than 14 days in advance.

If an employer changes a service employee's work schedule with less than 14-days' advance notice, the employer must pay the service employee an amount equal to the service employee's regular rate of pay for one hour of work, unless 1) the service employee consents to the change or 2) the employer requires the service employee to work additional time or an additional work shift because another service employee was scheduled to work that time or work shift and is unexpectedly unavailable to do so.

If an employer uses the following scheduling practices, the employer must compensate a service employee subjected to those practices as follows:

1. If the service employee reports to work and the employer does not allow the service employee to work all time scheduled, the employer shall provide the service employee with the following compensation: a) if the service employee is scheduled to work four hours or less, an amount equal to the service employee's regular rate of pay for all time the service employee is scheduled to work but does not work; or b) if the service employee is scheduled to work more than four hours and works less than four hours, an amount equal to the service employee's regular rate of pay for the difference between four hours and the amount of time the service employee actually works.

2. If the employer requires the service employee to contact the employer, or wait to be contacted by the employer, less than 24 hours before a work shift to determine whether the service employee must report to work, the employer must pay the service employee an amount equal to the service employee's regular rate of pay for one hour of work.

3. If the employer requires the service employee to work a split shift, the employer must pay the service employee an amount equal to the service employee's regular rate of pay for one hour of work.

If a service employee is entitled to more than one type of compensation related to employer scheduling practices with respect to a particular work shift, the employer must pay only one type of compensation, whichever is greatest.

The bill provides that, during any period in which the employer's regular operations are suspended due to an event outside of the employer's control, the employer is not required to comply with the service employee work scheduling requirements created in the bill.

The bill authorizes DWD to promulgate rules to apply the protections afforded under the bill to additional occupations if DWD determines that at least 10 percent of the individuals employed in an occupation either typically receive notice of changes to their work schedules less than 14 days before the change takes effect or regularly experience fluctuations in the number of hours the individuals are scheduled to work on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Enforcement The bill provides that an employer may not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of the right of an employee created in the bill and may not discharge or discriminate against an employee for enforcing the employee's rights under the bill.

An employee whose rights are violated may file a complaint with DWD, and DWD must process the complaint in the same manner that employment discrimination complaints are processed under current law. That processing may include the ordering of back pay, reinstatement, compensation in lieu of reinstatement, and costs and attorney fees.

The bill also provides that DWD or an employee whose rights are violated may bring an action in circuit court against the employer without regard to exhaustion of any administrative remedy. If the circuit court finds that a violation has occurred, the employer is liable to the employee for compensatory damages, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and, under certain circumstances, liquidated damages equal to 100 percent of the amount of compensatory damages awarded to the employee.

In addition to any damages imposed on an employer in an administrative proceeding or circuit court action, an employer that willfully violates the protections created in the bill may be required to forfeit not more than $1,000 for each violation.