How far in advance are employers required by law to post schedules for part-time employees?

Question

There is a major issue at my place of work regarding scheduling. I do not typically receive my schedule for any given week (Sunday-Saturday) until the Friday before the week starts. Thus, I only have one day of notice as to when I work on any Sunday. Surely there must be some sort of labor law that dictates how far in advance employees are supposed to post schedules for part-time employees with variable shifts. I have tried searching online, but haven't been able to find any information. I live in Oregon, if it's any help.

Answer 1

Scheduling has always been a major issue in rostered work. Some of the horror stories are not worth thinking about. How about a nurse who had a 12 hour shift, followed by a 2 hour break, then another 12 hour shift. All perfectly legal.

Part of the problem is that scheduling is actuall a NP-Complete problem, that means, Not Possible to Complete in Real time. It takes many hours of computing work to come up with a good schedule, so instead, because they are done by humans, they are usually pretty bad.

I don't think there is any specific law, and your schedule rules should be determined by a contract which says how many hours you will work and overhow many days they can schedule them.

Management really don't care or understand, and of course you can't plan any weekends away with family and friends, so it is a very difficult issue for you.

A quiet and polite word to the right person might solve this problem, or you write an unsigned letter to management asking them to fix the problem.

Answer 2

Sorry there's no laws about when schedules must be posted. They could wait till the night before if they want. If it's regularly a problem for you, consider asking for a regular schedule, or if that can't be done maybe having every Sunday off.. The only other option will of course be to quit.

Answer 3

Sorry, no laws. My boss didn't post this week's schedule until this morning (our weeks run Wednesday - Tuesday, today is Wednesday). I came in when I thought I was supposed to work, only to find out she scheduled me at a time I had told her I was not available on a weekly basis.