Councilmember Silverman Releases Statement on Fair Scheduling Bill

WASHINGTON, DC – At-Large D.C. Councilmember Elissa Silverman today released the following statement after the D.C. Council’s vote to table the Hours and Scheduling Stability Act of 2015 at their Committee of the Whole meeting:

“At this morning’s Council breakfast, I asked my colleagues to vote against a motion to table the Fair Scheduling bill. Instead, I requested that the legislation, the Hours and Scheduling Stability Act of 2015, be recommitted to the newly created Subcommittee on Workforce, which I will chair. I told my colleagues that I would use the next three months to convene meetings with them to understand and work through their issues with the current bill. Unfortunately, a majority of the Council voted to table the bill, which effectively kills it this session.

I remain committed to working on my colleagues’ concerns, so I will start to convene working groups on this bill this week, which will include businesses and labor advocates. I will also invite my colleagues to join the discussion.

Yesterday, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to support a similar bill, which does three things: gives workers their schedules two weeks in advance; allows part-time workers first chance at additional hours; and compensates workers for being on-call for a schedule change.

The Seattle City Council spent seven months on working groups to get to a unanimous vote. I will begin our process this week in order to reintroduce a stronger bill next session. I look forward to working with all interested parties.”