Regulatory Unburdening ? require employers in the city to inform employees of their schedules two weeks in advance — and pay them a bonus if there are changes in the schedule or in their number of hours worked .
“ How in the world do you schedule when you don ’ t know if it ’ s going to snow ?” says Tankel , citing the potential absurdity of having to pay a penalty to everyone who ’ s scheduled to work at his more than three dozen restaurants when they may not even be open .
Tankel , an industry veteran with a long track record of doing good for his employees and communities in the New York metro area — hiring former convicts and opening his Applebee ’ s in areas considered iffy at best by most brands — says that while this is a very difficult time for restaurateurs , he still loves the business and , at 75 , has no plans to get out soon . “ There are good things on the horizon . It certainly won ’ t get worse . But we will be left with some of this legacy legislation in place . It won ’ t just go away ,” he says .
Metz says predictive scheduling makes sense within reason , but thinks some of the proposed rules are unreasonable . On the employee side , “ What right do we have as an employer to have somebody on the schedule and 30 minutes after they ’ re there to cut them ? There has to be some give and take ,” he says . “ We really can work as an industry to give people more control over their schedule .”
Metz says he has found a happy medium for his restaurants : an employee scheduling tool called HotSchedules that works for employees to give them advance notice of their schedules yet still allows enough flexibility to make it work for him as an employer .
Overtime , over-burdened Headline : “ 21 States File Suit Challenging the DOL ’ s New Overtime Rule ” ( September 2016 ).
Announced by the Department of Labor in May 2016 , the ruling to raise the threshold for overtime from $ 23,660 to $ 47,476 per year ( from $ 455 to $ 913 per week ) was quickly criticized and challenged . Nevertheless , franchisees scrambled to meet the DOL ’ s December 1 deadline — only to learn at the 11th hour that the deadline was put on hold by the courts .
Metz says he made the change well in advance of December 1 and he ’ s sticking to it . “ As soon as Obama said that ’ s what he wanted to do , we immediately took action as if it would happen .” Those changes apply to everyone at corporate , as well as to the managers at his franchised and corporate locations . “ I ’ m very happy with hourly managers and one salaried manager per store ,” he says . And while he thinks the previous number was much too low , he says the new number is a little high .
“ Everybody we ’ re hiring now is hourly , and I think those people are making less ,” says Robins . Without the new rule , he says he would have hired more people into salaried positions . Today he is not only hiring people on an hourly basis , he also is not allowing them to go overtime . “ I ’ ll continue to make that change in 2017 until we get some clarity around that rule .”
In the big picture , the employer-employee relationship has been changing over the years , and it ’ s past time the country ’ s businesses and regulators caught up with the times . Much of the shift to the socalled flexible economy has been made possible by technology , with Uber , Lyft , and Airbnb the most prominent examples of “ two-sided marketplaces ” that essentially are middlemen connecting buyers and sellers . But so are online ordering and delivery services and staffing agencies ( see “ The Gig Economy ,” page 70 ).
Lotito refers to a 2014 book by David Weil , Wage and Hour Administrator at the DOL since May 2014 . In The Fissured Workplace , Weil argues that the traditional relationship between the employer and employee has broken down and that gig economy workers need more protection . And yes , Virginia , there are plenty of documented abuses of the employeremployee relationship that have , again , drawn increased scrutiny from regulators and legislators ( think misclassified workers , independent contractors , and companies that try to mask control of the situation and move the liability of the employment relationship to someone else .)
Again , Lotito cites the “ 10 percent factor ” of bad actors , who tend to define their industries , create negative headlines , and result in compliance requirements that burden business owners . “ Employees become more expensive because of all this compliance ,” he says . “ The incoming administration will take a hard look at this .”
ACA ( aka Obamacare ) As of this writing , what ’ s happening with the Affordable Care Act ( ACA ) is anyone ’ s guess . Even with the Republicans in control of both the White House and Congress
( and some of the more fervent members salivating at the prospect of finally repealing “ Obamacare ” after at least 60 failed votes ), the future is far from clear . Trump and Congress already can ’ t agree , and Republican legislators have begun arguing among themselves about what to repeal , what to replace it with , and when . Some are even wondering now if the “ known evil ” of the ACA is better than the current state of uncertainty in Washington , D . C .
Yet , amidst all the political and ideological posturing , there ’ s still the real world of competition , market share battles , and brand building . “ I have different worries ,” says Metz . “ I ’ m not particularly worried about the regulatory environment .” Instead , he says , it ’ s the growth of new kinds of competition in the restaurant industry for consumer dollars and mindshare — not so much from other restaurants , but from new competitors such as convenience stores and grocery stores offering fully prepared takeout foods , and from prepared food delivery services like Blue Apron . He does , however , like the growth in delivery concepts such as UberEats , which along with online ordering will drive sales . Then there ’ s the simple fact of more consumers dining at home more often as their disposable income shrinks and they worry about the uncertainties affecting their own future .
“ Obamacare affects everybody across the spectrum ,” says Tankel , not only employers . He says the flat rate penalty of $ 695 for not having insurance ( even if you ’ re a 30-year-old in perfect health ) is equal to about 15 average checks at one of his Applebee ’ s , roughly one visit a month . That adds up .
While he objects to “ picking peoples ’ pockets and redistributing that income to the more needy ” in the healthcare pool , he strongly supports coverage for people with pre-existing conditions . “ They need to be covered , but we have to find a better way .”
Get out there ! “ The narrative of franchising is still misunderstood by legislators and the public ,” says Robins , who has participated in the CFA ’ s efforts to educate elected officials on CFA Day , which includes a visit to “ The Hill ” to meet with members of Congress . “ Not only the federal legislators , but the state and local ones still don ’ t understand that it ’ s small guys operating a business under a flag . And the employees . We need
58 MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE ISSUE I , 2017