SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco is already a national leader in workers' pay and sick leave. It now could also become a national model for how some employees work schedules are handled.
Francis Cruz is spending time at the beach. He's a retail worker and is off today and Thursday. Last week it was Wednesday and Thursday. He doesn't find out until the day before the work week begins what his schedule will be.
"I'm being held hostage basically," said Cruz.
His situation is not unique. 59 percent of American workers are paid hourly, often meaning they have no control over their schedules or their lives.
"I was trying to take classes as well but because of the unpredictability of my schedule I wasn't able to do that," said Cruz.
Labor practices have changed with many companies using sophisticated software to plug in employees at the last minute.
On Tuesday, Supervisor David Chiu introduced legislation targeting chain stores, known in San Francisco as formula retail. If places like Starbucks, Target or Walgreens have at least 20 employees there would be new requirements.
"First when an employee is hired, an employer will be required to in good faith, estimate the minimum number of hours the employee would be expected to work. Secondly, they would be required to post a schedule 14 days in advance," said Chiu.
Workers would receive extra pay if those mandates are violated. The Chamber of Commerce has concerns.
"Because any time you legislate on the way people can operate their business, it's a problem trying to draft one piece of legislation that fits numerous business models in terms of size and type," said Jim Lazarus of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Right now there are more than 1,200 companies with 35,000 workers that could be affected.