Erratic work schedules take big toll on families

Jesus Manuel Gomez quit his restaurant dishwashing job when he saw the effect his long work days had on his 10yearold son with special needs.

Although he was scheduled to work from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., the Honduran native said through a Spanishspeaking interpreter that he would get out between midnight and 1 a.m. and then still be asleep when his son left for school the next morning.

“He takes medication so he can concentrate and gets treatment at school,” Gomez said of his son.

“But when I saw what was happening with my schedule, that it was impacting his ability to focus even though he was getting treatment, I only worked there a couple of weeks.”

More than onefourth of the state’s 885,000 hourly employees who potentially face wide swings in work schedules are parents of children under the age of 18, putting their kids at risk for behavioral issues, a newly released report by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth concluded.

Women and men of color are more likely not to have any input on their schedules and people of color, particularly black and Latina women, are more likely to have unstable work schedules including extended shifts, last minute “oncall” shifts, and shifts canceled after they have arrived at work, compared to their white counterparts, the report found based on data from the national Shift Project.

Their children are paying the price, said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D3rd District.

“It’s really unbelievable that women of color have no input into their schedules,” DeLauro said. “How do you plan for child care or family care? What if you want to go to school? It takes a toll on kids.”

DeLauro and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMassachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, are again introducing the Schedules That Work Act aimed at reducing work scheduling inequalities by requiring companies in the retail, hospitality, cleaning, restaurants and warehousing industries to provide work schedules two weeks in advance.

The bill, which has failed to pass twice in recent years, includes provisions to protect hourly workers who ask for shift changes from retaliation and protect employees from being forced to work a closing shift at night and an opening shift the next morning, commonly called a “clopen,” less than 11 hours later.

Carl Jordan Castro / C-Hit.org Emelia Huerta and her daughter Flor in the kitchen of their Bridgeport home. Huerta worked through a temp agency as a housekeeper. She said she often worked more hours then she was originally scheduled. Those extra hours were never paid. She quit and now runs her own cleaning service.