Friday, May 15, 2015

San Francisco Enacts Employee Bill Of Rights - What Rights Would You Put In?

San Francisco's employees now have rights, at least in the retail sector. The city has enacted a Retail Workers'  Bill Of Rights that includes rights such as:
  • Offering extra hours to existing employees before hiring new employees or using subcontractors or temps;
  • New owners must retain existing employees for at least 90 days;
  • Provide a written estimate of the shifts and schedules employees will work before they start;
  • Post schedules 2 weeks in advance;
  • Provide advance notice of schedule changes and pay up to 4 hours for last minute shift cancellations;
  • Provide on-call pay for all on-call shifts, whether or not actually called into work;
  • Give part-time employees the same hourly rate and access to PTO as full-time employees.
While this is a good start, and should help those in the retail sector, what about other employees? In states like our pro-employer state of Florida, we need our own bill of rights for employees. Here's some of what I'd put in a Florida Employees' Bill of Rights:
  1. True right to work: No restrictions on working for competitors. Instead, the restrictions would only be on stealing trade secrets.
  2. My free time is my own: No monitoring of employees when they're off the clock, and no firing employees for legal off-duty activities.
  3. Right to work in peace: Bullying doesn't belong in workplaces any more than in schools. Zero tolerance for workplace bullies.
  4. Right to reasonable breaks: Right now we have zero laws that require any work breaks in Florida. It's time we give employees reasonable rest and meal breaks.
  5. Right to a copy of anything you sign: If your employer makes you sign a warning, policy or contract, you should be provided a copy the same day you sign and anytime you request it.
  6. Fair time to review contracts: Prospective employees should be provided copies of any and all contracts and agreements they will be expected to sign before they accept the offer. 
  7. Consideration for contracts: Ban all sign-or-be-fired contracts and instead require reasonable consideration for any employment contract.

So, what would you put in your employee bill of rights? 

2 comments:

  1. the knowledge I get in your blog is very helpful specially to all employees like me..
    Great data for State Farm

    ReplyDelete
  2. A workplace without bullying would be a wonderful dream.

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate your comments and general questions but this isn't the place to ask confidential legal questions. If you need an employee-side employment lawyer, try http://exchange.nela.org/findalawyer to locate one in your state.