On March 1, 2019, the New York State Department of Labor announced its withdrawal of proposed predictive scheduling regulations, which comes as a relief to businesses state-wide. Two years ago, the Department announced its intent to adopt predictive scheduling regulations. In 2018, the Department issued revised proposed regulations regarding “call-in” scheduling. The regulations aimed at limiting "on-call" scheduling practices and provided employees premium pay if shifts were changed and/or canceled.
After receiving "extensive feedback" during the comment period which highlighted "significant issues" with the proposed regulations, the Department decided to let the process expire and will re-evaluate regulations in the future.
The Department's decision does not affect the existing New York State Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations Minimum Wage Order. Employers subject to the Miscellaneous Order must still comply with its requirements. The Miscellaneous Order requires call-in pay, spread of hours and split shifts pay, and sets forth allowances.
Additionally, employers subject to the NYC Fair Workweek law must comply with those requirements. The NYC Fair Workweek law regulates fast food employers’ ability to make schedule changes, requires fast food employers to pay employees a premium for schedule changes, and limits the practice of having retail employees remain “on call” for shifts. You can read about the NYC Fair Workweek law here.
