Mayor de Blasio on Thursday returned to the “tale of two cities” theme that helped catapult him into City Hall by laying out a new effort to ensure fast-food employees are given fair and stable work schedules.
With roughly a year until the 2017 mayoral primary, de Blasio returned to his roots of fighting income inequality, this time over the unpredictability of work schedules in the fast-food industry.
“If you want an example of the tale of two cities, if you want an example of how the 1 percent have gotten wealthier on the backs of working people, here you have it — the fast-food industry,” de Blasio said outside a McDonald’s in Downtown Brooklyn.
During the fight to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 per hour, officials said they heard complaints about employees not knowing when they’d work and being asked to work at a moment’s notice.
The mayor said he’ll introduce legislation requiring fast-food chains to set workers’ schedules two weeks in advance and pay workers extra when they have to work at the last minute.
The chains would also have to maintain a 10-hour gap between back-to-back closing and opening shifts.