J. Crew ends on-call scheduling in US

J. Crew ends on-call scheduling in US

ALBANY, N.Y.

J. Crew has agreed to end on-call scheduling at stores nationwide, following similar moves by several other major retailers, New York’s attorney general said Friday.

In April, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office wrote to 13 retailers questioning the practice of keeping workers on call for shifts on short notice. The letter also cited possible violations of New York’s requirement to pay hourly staff for at least four hours when they report for work.

Senior Vice President Maria Di Lorenzo said J. Crew ended on-call shifts nationally this month. The on-call shifts had helped the company deal with unexpected staff absences and schedule changes for product deliveries, she said. The retailer began discussing possible changes 10 months ago, has disabled the on-call feature from its scheduling software and now will fill needed slots on a voluntary basis, which may present some challengers for managers, she wrote in a letter to the New York attorney general.

Tech stocks lead rally in US markets

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, delivering their second gain in two days and pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 index back into positive territory for the year.

Strong quarterly earnings from several big-name technology companies helped rally the market, which gradually has been regaining ground after a swoon in August and September. Microsoft vaulted to a 15-year high, and Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet closed sharply higher.

Investors also welcomed an interest-rate cut by China’s central bank and the possibility of more economic stimulus for Europe.

The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, rose 111.81 points, or 2.3 percent, to 5,031.86.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 157.54 points, or 0.9 percent, to 17,646.70. The S&P 500 index climbed 22.64 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,075.15.

25 states sue over new clean-air rules

WASHINGTON

States and industry groups dependent on fossil fuels filed court challenges Friday to President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Opponents of the plan filed a flurry of lawsuits at the U.S. Court of Appeals as the Environmental Protection Agency published its final version of the new regulations.

The challenges from all but two of the 25 states were filed by Republicans. They deride the plan as an “unlawful power grab by Washington bureaucrats” that will kill coal-mining jobs and drive up electricity costs.

The states challenging the plan in court are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming and Wisconsin.

Also filing suit against the EPA on Friday was Murray Energy Corp., the nation’s largest privately owned coal company.

Associated Press