Apple is rolling out employee scheduling changes to all of its U.S. and Canada retail stores, says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in the latest issue of his PowerOn newsletter. Apple is making changes in its scheduling as a part of its efforts to address employees’ concerns about pay, benefits, and working hours.
Starting on April 29, Apple will bring the new policies to its roughly 300 stores in the US and Canada.
The main changes are:
- A maximum of five consecutive workdays, down from the prior limit of six.
- More weekend time off for part-time employees.
- A consistent weekend workday or day off for full-time employees.
These new rules could be temporarily suspended during peak shopping periods (such as a new iPhone launch or during the holiday shopping season) or for all-hands meetings. Time off must be requested at least four weeks in advance, a slight adjustment from the prior three weeks’ notice requirement.
The new rules have reportedly caused concern among some part-time Apple retail employees who are concerned about another new policy that they say is being introduced at some stores: a requirement to work on weekends. The employees are worried that they’ll be fired if they don’t agree to work on those days, even though they didn’t have to do so when they joined the Cupertino firm.
Other part-time employees report that their managers are asking them to work at least a few more hours per week than they were previously required to.
