Via iStockPhoto

Via iStockPhoto

A work scheduling bill has effectively been rescheduled to another D.C. Council legislative session.

The D.C. Council voted 9-4 to table a proposed law that would require chain stores and restaurants give advanced notice for schedule changes, a bill that has been championed by labor activists but maligned by many business leaders. Coming at the end of the two-year legislative session, that likely means the bill is dead and would have to be reintroduced in January.

If passed, the Hours and Scheduling Stability Act would have required that food and retail outlets with 40 or more establishments nationwide give at least 14 days of advanced notice for work schedules. Should a business fail to comply, they would be required to additionally compensate the employee. It also mandates that those companies pay workers for part of the time spent waiting for an on-call shift.

Ward 6’s Charles Allen has argued, though, that there are still details that need to be worked out—like what specifically constitutes a weather or transit event that would exempt employers from fines.

The bill only narrowly made it out of committee and was pushed back to after the summer recess.

Business groups cheered the move to table the legislation. “This ill-conceived legislation would have instituted major roadblocks between managers and their employees, and would have threatened the ability of retailers and restaurateurs to open up shop and operate in the District,” said Joshua Baca, a spokesperson for the D.C. Jobs & Growth Partnership (a secretive group that seems to have popped up for the purpose of opposing the bill).

Meanwhile, more than 100 people showed up to the Wilson Building this morning to show their support both for the scheduling bill as well as a pioneering paid family leave law in the works. Anne-Marie Slaughter, the president of the New America Foundation (and the author of the Atlantic article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All’), also tweeted her support.

“By tabling this legislation, they gave into big business lobbyists instead of looking out for hard-working residents in our lowest paying industries,” Elizabeth Falcon, the executive director of DC Jobs With Justice, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Seattle joined San Francisco in passing a law requiring stable schedules—unanimously voting for a scheduling bill yesterday (it goes into effect in 2017).

At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman pledged to follow in the Seattle City Council’s path, saying in a statement that “I will begin our process this week in order to reintroduce a stronger bill next session.” Mary Cheh, LaRuby May, and Brianne Nadeau were the other three Councilmembers who voted against tabling the legislation.