The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Employment Law Project (NELP) have released a new report closely examining how Uemployment Insurance rules fail to protect many claimants separated from work as a consequence of volatile scheduling. Under these scheduling arrangements, workers get little or no advance notice of scheduling changes, are often not paid when they show up and are given no hours, lack predictable schedules, and face favoritism and retaliation from supervisors if they complain. 

One consequence of job-schedule volatility is job loss: for some workers, the mismatch between job schedules and the rest of their responsibilities become untenable, either forcing them to quit or leading them to be fired from their jobs. The new report, Out Of Sync: How Unemployment Insurance Rules Fail Workers With Volatile Job Schedules recommends UI changes that can better protect workers subject to irregular work schedules.

These changes include updating partial UI formulas and modifying agency policies and court rulings that require claimants to address changes in their terms and conditions of employment. Traditional rules on seeking accommodations from employers and what constitutes good cause for a voluntary quit need to be reevaluated in light of the current scheduling practices in many industries. The major legal finding of the report is that UI rules developed in traditional scheduling settings do not automatically translate to volatile-scheduling employers.

Out of Sync is based upon an examination of legal rules in all states augmented by interviews of state agency staff and advocates in 10 states. It summarizes part-time availability, voluntary quit, and partial UI rules in all states. It was written by Liz Ben-Ishai of CLASP, and Rick McHugh and Claire McKenna of NELP. It is available for downloading on both the NELP and CLASP websites.