Federal
U.S. Congress – The senate passed the pending $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2023. The legislation is currently before the house with expected passage later today. The president has indicated he will sign the bill. The 4,155-page bill includes many issues important to the industry but omits several others as well. Included in the bill is an additional $25 million to the budget of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It is the first increase in ten years, and an important priority for the labor community. Similarly, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) received a $35 million increase and the Labor Department’s Wage & Hour Division (WHD) an additional $9 million. Another significant piece of pending legislation impacting employers, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, was surprisingly included in the bill. That language would require employers to provide pregnant workers with so-called reasonable accommodations in the same vein as those provided to disabled workers, like more frequent bathroom breaks, the ability to carry a water bottle, and the option to sit during a shift. Additionally, an amendment was passed requiring employers to provide extra time and space for workers to breastfeed on the job – a provision had been previously held up due to opposition from the airline industry. Conversely, restaurant operators will be disappointed that efforts to include the pending bi-partisan Credit Card Competition Act in the package were unsuccessful. If passed, the language would have mandated that merchants have access to card networks other than Visa and Mastercard for routing credit card transactions, bringing much-needed competition to the marketplace. That bill will continue as free-standing legislation and will be reintroduced in the next Congress. More details.
Labor Policy
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that barring any “unforeseen circumstances,” their new joint employer rule should be finalized next Aug. Under the proposed rule, two or more employers would be considered joint employers if they “share or codetermine those matters governing employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment,” such as wages, benefits, compensation, scheduling, hiring, discharge, discipline, workplace safety, supervision, assignment, and work rules. The public comment period ended this week. More details.
New York – The governor signed legislation making New York the fourth U.S. state to require salary ranges with job postings. The law takes effect next Sept. and applies to all employers across the state with four or more workers. By Sept., job ads must include an annual or hourly salary amount or minimum and maximum range. A similar New York City law went into effect in Nov. California, Colorado, and Washington have similar laws on the books. When the new law takes effect, 20 percent of all U.S. workers will live in a state with pay transparency laws. More details.
McDonald’s – The company settled a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against a McDonald’s franchise owner in Arizona, accusing the company of allowing sexual harassment to occur at restaurants across three states. The lawsuit contends that since 2017 the franchisor was aware of and tolerated harassment by supervisors, managers, and coworkers that mainly targeted teenage employees. Male and female workers complained of unwanted groping and touching, offensive comments and gestures, intimidation, and insults. The company will pay nearly $2 million to settle the suit. More details.
Labor Activism
Apple – The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed a complaint with the NLRB charging the company with unfair labor practices. The complaint accuses the company of creating its own labor organization, the “Employee Forum,” as a way “to stifle union activity.” The group is described in a pamphlet, according to the CWA, as “a dedicated working group that can be used as a formal means for employees and leaders to provide feedback on both local and retail organization-wide initiatives, policies and practices.” The complaint also says Apple held “a mandatory captive audience meeting in which its representative stated that the company would refuse to bargain certain subjects if a Union was formed.” More details.
Intelligentsia Coffee – Unionized workers ratified a 2-year collective bargaining agreement struck between the company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1220. The new contract includes “wage increases and job protections” for union members. Specifically, baristas and shift leads will get pay increases of about 14 percent over the term of the contract, mandated paid 30-minute meal breaks, and will earn double time for holidays, compared with the prior time-and-a-half. The starting pay for baristas will be almost $18/hr and with shift leads at nearly $19/hr. More details.
Starbucks – In an effort to push the company to the bargaining table, the Starbucks Workers United union launched the longest national action to date with workers at 60 stores going on strike for three days, and walkouts at another 40 locations for at least part of last weekend. It was the second major strike within a month, following Nov. 17’s one-day strike at about 110 stores. This is on top of an ongoing union-led campaign recently launched to persuade customers not to buy gift cards. More details.
Sustainability
Maine – Another important provision embedded in the Omnibus Spending Package was language delaying by six years any further regulation of the Maine lobster fishery with regard to protecting Right Wales. Earlier this year, environmental groups successfully sued the federal government charging regulators were not doing enough to protect the species and asserting that fishing tackle and other harvesting equipment was killing whales. The government appealed and won a two-year grace period to study the issue and develop new regulations. The governor of Maine and the state’s congressional delegation were instrumental in integrating language into the final bill extending that study period an additional four years to 2028. Over the last year, environmental groups have been pressuring restaurants to remove Maine lobster from their menus. More details.
3M – The company announced that it would stop making PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that are used in cookware and food packing products. Dubbed “forever chemicals” because of the extraordinarily length of time it takes for them to break down in the environment, they have been linked to many types of cancers and other diseases. The presence of PFAS in food packaging has been at the center of the environmental community’s efforts to ban Styrofoam as well as plastic packaging and utensils in states and localities. More details.
Key Takeaways
- The National Conference of State Legislatures recently held their annual legislative forecast conference to discuss the most important issues that state leaders will face in the coming legislative sessions. According to NCSL CEO Tim Storey, the set of issues earning the most intense discussion heading into 2023 pertain to the workforce. In his words, “the struggle to employ workers resonates with legislators from coast-to-coast. And that in more than 30 years of legislative work, I have never seen such unanimity across states and among leaders in identifying a big issue.” The organization says that in particular the labor shortage, benefits for gig workers, childcare and bolstering state unemployment systems will all be top issues in a significant number of states.
- The Biden Administration continues to bolster its credentials as the most labor-friendly administration since FDR winning long-sought budget increases at agencies important to the labor community including the Labor Department itself and significant increases for agencies such as the NLRB, EEOC, OSHA and the Wage & Hour Division. The Administration is putting its money where its mouth is and employers should not discount their efforts to confront brands regardless of size and reputation over their employment practices.