Wages
California – One Fair Wage kicked off a campaign to increase the state minimum wage to between $22-24/hr. The proponents are framing the effort as a living wage campaign and intend to extend those wage levels to incarcerated prisoners. A bill with much the same language received an assembly hearing this week. More details.
New York – The governor and legislative leaders have agreed upon a minimum wage increase as part of the state budget. The compromise calls for an increase in the New York City area by 50 cents each year until 2026, increasing base pay from $15/hr to $17/hr. North of Westchester County, the raise would increase from $14.20/hr to $17/hr by 2028. The budget, nearly a month late at this point, should be finalized any day now. The change would start to take effect in 2024 and would be indexed to inflation once fully phased in. More details.
Boulder, CO – The Boulder Labor Council kicked off a campaign to pressure the city council to raise the minimum wage to $25/hr by 2028. The initial increase would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. In 2019, Boulder County supported legislation that allows municipalities to set their own minimum wage above the state minimum which is currently $13.65/hr. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S. Senate – The Senate HELP committee advanced the nomination of Julie Su as the next Labor Secretary. The labor community has strongly supported her nomination. On the other hand, business groups (including the National Restaurant Association and the International Franchise Association) have opposed her nomination citing her record in California, and previous support for issues like the FAST Act. The timing for full senate confirmation is unclear and expected to be a very close vote. The health of ailing Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is complicating matters for Democratic leaders who will need every available vote. More details.
California – The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and a group of rideshare drivers petitioned the state supreme court to review a recent appeals court ruling that largely upheld Prop-22, which was approved by voters in 2020 and, in effect, voided AB-5. Last month, a state appeals court said that Uber, Lyft, and other platform companies could continue to treat their workers as independent contractors under a California ballot measure known as Proposition 22, though it asked that a clause which put restrictions on collective bargaining by workers be severed from it. Proposition 22, which passed in November 2020, allowed these companies to continue leveraging the independent contractor model instead of classifying their drivers as employees.. A California court deemed it unconstitutional in 2021. The court order in March reversed parts of that lower-court ruling. The California Supreme Court, once it receives a petition, has 60 days to decide whether to review the case, but can request a 30-day extension. More details.
California – A joint employer bill focused squarely on the quick service restaurant sector advanced out of the assembly Judiciary Committee. It would require that a fast food restaurant franchisor share with its fast food restaurant franchisee all civil legal responsibility and civil liability for the franchisee’s violations of prescribed laws and orders or their implementing rules or regulations. The bill would authorize enforcement of those provisions against a franchisor, including administratively or by civil action, to the same extent that they may be enforced against the franchisee. The language is similar to the joint employer language removed from AB-257, the FAST Act. And the sponsor of the FAST Act is sponsoring this bill. More details.
New Jersey – The governor signed legislation to provide unemployment compensation to workers who are involved in labor disputes after only two weeks and immediately if replacement workers are hired either permanently or even temporarily. The bill takes effect immediately and will apply to all claims filed after Jan. 1, 2022. More details.
Labor Activism
Amazon – A group of Amazon drivers and dispatchers in Southern California have joined the Teamsters and negotiated a tentative contract with their employer, an Amazon contractor, in what would be a first for the online retailer’s delivery network. The 84 workers are employed by Battle-Tested Strategies, one of Amazon’s “delivery service partners” that handles last-mile deliveries for Amazon. The Teamsters said Battle-Tested Strategies had agreed to voluntarily recognize the union. The company says that it was already in the process of severing its relationship from the provider and that the results of the union election are moot. More details.
Starbucks – This week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a complaint against Starbucks alleging four separate violations of the National Labor Relations Act for more than 100 Starbucks stores whose employees are now represented by Starbucks Workers United. A regional director accused the company of ‘insisting upon proposals that are predictably unacceptable to the union,’ and ‘demeaning and otherwise undermining the union’s chosen representatives. This latest complaint is among more than 80 filed by the NLRB since Starbucks employees first began organizing in 2021. But, as noted, it comes after well over a year of attempts to secure collective bargaining agreements at Starbucks’ unionized stores. More details.
Alcohol
Maine – The governor signed legislation making cocktails to go permanent. The governor issued an executive order in 2020 permitting restaurants to sell and deliver beverages if accompanied by a food order, while distilleries could sell liquor without food. Last year, a law extended to-go drinks, including delivery and take-out. The new law makes those same provisions permanent. The new law does require those drinks to be labeled and placed in the trunk or non-passenger compartments of a vehicle. More details.
Sustainability
Federal Trade Commission – The public comment period ended this week on the agency’s first update of its “Green Guides” since 2013. The guides form the parameters of what is allowable language when companies are making environmental marketing claims. Over 60,000 comments were submitted regarding the use of words, “recycling”, “sustainable” and corporate net-zero claims. More details.
California – A hearing will be held next week in an additional senate committee on legislation that would require all companies earning at least $1 billion in annual revenue and doing business in the state to provide information on their global carbon footprints starting in 2026, including emissions from direct operations, energy use, and supply chains. The bill would be more stringent than the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule, which would only apply to publicly traded companies and wouldn’t require all of them to disclose supply-chain emissions, also known as Scope 3. The disclosures would require third-party verification and would be handled by the California Air Resources Board, which would contract with a nonprofit organization to create a public database. The bill would allow the attorney general to bring civil action against non-compliant companies, a scaling back of the previous version’s proposed authority to levy fines for violations. It has already advanced out of two committees. More details.
Misc.
Florida – Legislation mandating that state and local taxes be excluded from the calculation of credit card interchange fees advanced out of the senate Rules Committee and is poised for floor action. Florida is one of nearly ten states with similar legislation pending. More detail
Key Takeaways
- Two major developments in the labor relations space occurred this week, both of which could have wide-ranging impacts. Contracted Amazon drivers and Alphabet workers are both trying to earn concessions from their parent companies, despite the fact that the workers are many business-to-business relationships removed from those companies. In the case of Alphabet, the NLRB has determined that the parent company is a joint employer with a YouTube Music contractor’s workers. And Alphabet may be forced to bargain directly with those workers. Both of these cases, as well as others, set precedents that could apply to the franchise industry.
- Brands should pay close attention to the Federal Trade Commission’s pending guidance on sustainable marketing. For example, over 700 U.S. corporations have announced net-zero targets without clear standards for what that entails. Environmental groups are pressuring the government for standards and parameters for these claims. If successful, new standards could denigrate certain corporate efforts to date. Companies should follow the proceedings closely.
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 Restaurant Business online website, SoundCloud, iTunes and Spotify.