COVID-19
Arizona – A house committee held a hearing on legislation that would punish businesses with a minimum $500,000 fine if they force workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and any of them have a “significant injury” from the jab. The legislation has already been approved by an additional house committee but is strongly opposed by the business community. More details.
Wages
Hawaii – The Senate passed legislation that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $12/hr by Oct. and $18/hr by 2026. The vote was 24-1. The senate’s proposal could meet resistance in the house, which plans to package an increase in the minimum wage with tax relief for low-income families. More details.
Virginia – The Republican-led house passed legislation in a party-line vote that will cancel the gradual increases that are planned for the state’s minimum wage in the coming years. Virginia’s minimum wage, which currently sits at $11/hr, is scheduled to increase annually until it reaches $15/hr by 2026. The legislation is likely to fail in the Democratic-led senate where a previous effort to repeal the new law was rejected. More details.
Pennsylvania – The governor’s recently announced minimum wage increase to $15/hr for state workers went into effect this week. He continues to lead an uphill effort to pass legislation in the Republican-controlled legislature. The state’s current minimum wage mirrors the federal level of $7.25/hr. The new wage could affect private sector workers working in state-owned facilities. More details.
Vermont – Next week, a senate committee will consider legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr by 2025. While the legislature has strong Democratic majorities, the Republican governor has shown resistance to high minimum wage increases in the past. Vermont’s current minimum wage is $12.55/hr and tied to inflation. More details.
Los Angeles, CA – The mayor announced that the city’s minimum wage, which is based on the region’s Consumer Price Index, will increase from $15/hr to $16.04/hr effective July 1. The city’s wage law was signed in June 2015, lifting the wage to $15/hr by 2020 and making it subject to increases each year based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the L.A. metropolitan area. More details.
Healthcare
California – Legislation to create a government-run universal health care system in California died this week without coming up for a vote. The single-payer measure was the latest attempt to deliver on a longtime priority of progressive activists. Because the legislation was introduced last year (it stalled then without receiving a single hearing), it needed to pass the assembly by Jan. 31st to continue through the legislative process. More details.
Paid Leave
California – Last week,the governor and legislative leaders announced that they had reached an agreement on a framework that will once again require employers to provide paid COVID-19 supplemental sick leave. The bill was introduced and “fast tracked” for quick action. Under the plan, workers at businesses with 26 or more employees who test positive for the virus or have to care for a family member with COVID-19 would get up to two weeks of supplemental leave. It would be retroactive and cover COVID-19 absences from Jan. 1. It will also provide up to 40 hours of additional paid sick leave, and another 40 hours if a worker or a family member tests positive. A companion bill in the senate will likely be introduced any day. More details.
Delaware – A house committee advanced legislation creating a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program. If passed, employees can access up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave through the state’s paid leave trust fund for a qualifying event, including a worker’s own serious health condition, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, to bond and care for a new child, or to address the impact of a family member’s military deployment. Chances for final passage are high. More details.
Maryland – A house committee has scheduled an additional hearing to consider legislation establishing a Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program to provide employees with 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave per year. If passed, the program would cover both full and part-time workers and be funded by both employer and employee contributions. Companion legislation is moving in the senate. More details.
Virginia – A senate committee held a hearing on legislation establishing a Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program within the state Labor Department that may be administered by a private insurance provider. The bill provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of paid parental and family leave and the option to obtain paid medical leave coverage for their own illness. The program is funded via employer contributions. More details.
Google – The company made significant benefits announcements including a minimum of 20 paid vacation days annually, up from 15 days. Additionally, parents who give birth can take up to 24 weeks off compared with 18 previously. All other parents will have up to 18 weeks of leave, up from 12. More details.
Labor Policy
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board plans to start using court injunctions to prevent employers from threatening or coercing workers in the midst of a union campaign. Under the new initiative, “the general counsel will seek authorization to obtain prompt Section 10(j) relief in organizing campaigns where the facts demonstrate that employer threats or other coercion may lead to irreparable harm,” according to the NLRB announcement. “Field offices are thus instructed to quickly investigate alleged threats or other coercion made during an organizing drive and promptly submit those cases for consideration of injunctive relief.” More details.
California – The state assembly passed AB 257, the Fast-Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act. Among other provisions, it would create a Fast-Food Sector Council that would establish wage and benefit rates and other workplace standards for quick service restaurants. This concept – often referred to as sectoral bargaining – is popular among labor advocates. The legislation now goes to the senate where its chances for passage are unclear. More details.
Study – According to a recently-updated twice-yearly survey by Daniel Schneider, a Harvard sociologist, and Kristen Harknett, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco, one-quarter of workers at large retailers and restaurant chains said they were scheduled 35 hours a week or less but wanted more hours. That was down from about one-third in 2019, but the change was driven by a decline in the number of workers wanting more hours, most likely because of pandemic health risks and work-life conflicts, not because employers were providing more hours. The study will be used in part by policy makers to justify renewed focus on restrictive scheduling legislation. More details.
Labor Activism
Starbucks – At last count, employees at 55 stores in 19 states are pursuing union elections, according to organizers. Fifteen of those stores joined the union drive on Monday of this week, petitioning the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to set a vote. Coincidently, the filing coincides with the start of contract negotiations between Starbucks and unionized workers in Buffalo. A chart of Starbucks locations in the organizing process can be found here. More details.
New York, NY – Food delivery workers in the city, who recently won rights to transparency in tipping and the use of restaurant bathrooms, joined with ride-share drivers this week in pressing for more protections, including better wages, health care and the right to unionize. Groups representing about 100,000 such app employees announced the formation of a new coalition, Justice for App Workers, that would push for new measures they say would “achieve dignity” for drivers and the city’s fleet of delivery workers. More details.
Delivery
Virginia – Legislation requiring agreements between a restaurant and a food delivery platform to disclose all fees charged by the food delivery platform was tabled in a house committee. If ultimately passed, the bill would mandate that prior to confirming an online order, a food delivery platform must clearly display the baseline cost of the food order and any additional fees associated with the order. However, under the bill, a restaurant operating through an independent ordering system that includes the option of delivery by a food delivery platform may elect to display only the total order cost rather than listing each associated fee. More details.
Alcohol
Virginia – The house passed legislation extending cocktails to-go until July 1, 2024. The bill now moves to the senate where passage is likely. More details.
Sustainability
Virginia – A house committee killed three bills that collectively would have set up a Packaging Stewardship Program effective Jan. 1, 2023. If passed, the program which would have required larger manufacturers to pay an annual fee to the Department of Environmental Quality based on the amount of packaging they use. All the bills included exemptions for smaller producers and fee offsets for companies with alternative collection programs. More details.
Rhode Island – Legislation to ban food service establishments from providing food or beverages in packaging made with expanded polystyrene foam (Styrofoam), or from providing beverage stirrers made from plastic was tabled in a house committee for further study. The bill would have applied to items such as takeout containers and cups, egg cartons, and trays that hold meat. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The scheduling issue, fairly dormant for the last couple of years, has reemerged as a leading priority for labor community activists. One reason is an emerging narrative, referenced in the Harvard survey noted above, that many workers are looking for more hours while at the same time, non-traditional traffic flows have made scheduling even more difficult for employers. This is providing an opening for activists to aggressively push the issue while also having a somewhat “stronger” case justifying the issue.
- New research from Qualtrics finds that the pandemic has boosted the tendency of consumers to give their business to restaurants and other enterprises that treat employees and customers with considerable consideration, according to new research. The findings validate that the public is particularly prone to shift its spending to establishments that show a commitment to keeping staff members and guests safe from the coronavirus. The research found that 30% of consumers have moved their purchases in the last 18 months to less-familiar brands because of their stricter safety protocols. Additionally, the research revealed that 22% of consumers have stopped frequenting a business because they had doubts about its commitment to safeguarding patrons and staff. The key issue, according to the findings, is trust. Participants in the project indicated that their assessment of a business’ trustworthiness is significantly shaped by how they see employees being treated. The statistics show that nearly half of American consumers (47%) view an employee-centric operation as being more deserving of their trust. Brands should take note.
Podcast
Check out our Working Lunch podcast each week that includes further analysis into these legislative issues, policy, politics and much more. You can find Working Lunch on the Nation’s Restaurant News website, SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.