Just-in-time scheduling hurts workers:
Many big retail stores use computer systems that use data from the weather outside, the flow of customers in the store, and the rate of sales to determine how many employees are needed for any given time.
This sort of automation is intended to boost the store’s bottom line. But for retail workers, who are often parents who need to hire babysitters, students who have tuition payments due, or people just trying to juggle shifts with two jobs, the “just-in-time” scheduling system wreaks havoc on their lives.
- This is special. The Ohio Contractors Association is suing the city of Akron for trying to institute local hiring requirements. Such requirements are fairly common, and it's obviously in a city's interest to have city money going to local contractors and workers, both to boost the local economy and for accountability purposes—a contractor with a reputation to protect in the immediate area is likely to be especially careful. But, yeah, the Ohio Contractors Association does not like that.
- Another NFL team is facing a wage theft lawsuit by a former cheerleader. This time, it's the Jets:
"When you look at the actual hours worked versus what Krystal was paid, she only made $3.77 per hour," her attorney Patricia Pierce said.
"The failure to pay the women who work as cheerleaders a legal wage for all of the hours that they work is clearly an NFL-wide problem that needs to change," Pierce said.
- Oh, look. Emphasizing testing above all else isn't improving test scores.
- The Chicago Teachers Union is opposing Common Core.