Lawsuit accuses Forever 21 of wage theft

How much longer will retailers keep using on-call scheduling? At the rate these lawsuits are going, it doesn't look like it will last much longer. Forever 21 is the latest in a string of lawsuits against retailers who use a business practice known as on-call scheduling for scheduling workers where they can heavily staff stores during busy times and cut payroll during slow times.

Last week, a legal complaint was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking class action status and accusing Forever 21 of wage theft. The lawyers for Raalon Kennedy, a former Forever 21 employee based in Thousand Oaks, California, filed the lawsuit.

The focus of the complaint is on-call scheduling. While this is a common practice among retailers, it has recently drawn some controversy thanks to lawsuits by employees at other retailers like Gap and Target. The practice of on-call scheduling allows retailers to notify their employees either the night before or a few hours before an expected shift whether or not they needed to come in for work.

For many people, this complicates having a second job or doing other things like budgeting, because they don't have a set amount of work hours and don't know what their paychecks will look like come payday. In Forever 21's case, employees call 2 hours ahead of their on-call shift to find out whether or not they are needed that day.

California state labor law requires employers to pay "reporting time pay", or hours when workers show up for shifts and end up not working or not working their entire scheduled shift. According to the lawsuit, the company doesn't include on-call hours in their reporting time pay.

In a statement earlier this month, the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Urban Outfitters had agreed to end on-call practices in the state, with workers receiving a week's notice of their schedules. Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, and Gap have all ended on-call practices according to his office as well.