Last week, the New York City Council Committee on Civil Service and Labor held a public hearing on a package of bills geared toward restricting the flexibility that employers have in dealing with their own employees. The council is entertaining a “Fair Workweek” package of 6 bills, which include a ban on “clopenings” (an employee closing an establishment and then opening it as his/her next shift), for which an employer would be required to pay the employee $100 for each violation; 14-day advance schedules, which would dictate that a penalty payment of between $15 – $45 if any schedule changes were made within 14 days; another would mandate that employers offer additional hours to existing part-time employees before hiring any additional part-time workers and still another would require that fast food employers allow workers to make voluntary contributions to nonprofits through payroll deductions! The final two pieces of the workweek package that the council committee heard last week go beyond fast food employment – one would prohibit “on-call” shifts and the other would create an employee right to request “flexible work arrangements”, without fear of retaliation.