Gap Will End On-Call Scheduling In All Of Its Stores

(Mike Mozart)

On-call scheduling is a retail practice that looks great on a store’s budget on paper, but wrecks employees’ lives in real life. Gap Inc. is the third major retailer in recent months that has announced that they’re ending the practice across all of their brands, after months working on what they call “sustainable scheduling practices.”

On-call scheduling means that a worker will be on a store’s schedule, but won’t necessarily have to work, depending on how busy the store is that day. It’s a nice cost-savings measure, but very inconvenient for employees, who can’t make plans during their on-call times, can’t be put on the schedule at other jobs, may have to arrange child care, and in the end may be sent home early, or may not be called in to make any money for that shift at all.

Other retailers that have announced they’re stopping the practice are Victoria’s Secret and the Abercrombie & Fitch brands. Gap says that they have been phasing out on-call scheduling all summer, and plan to eliminate it entirely by September.

All of these retailers aren’t suddenly re-evaluating their schedule practices just for fun, though. New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman asked thirteen national retailers for their scheduling data to determine whether they used on-call scheduling in a way that violated state or federal laws.

Equality Is Woven into the Fabric of Gap Inc.’s Company DNA [Gap Inc. Blog]