COVID-19
Vaccine Mandate – The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden Administration from enforcing its sweeping OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requirement for large private companies. The court allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid payments. The ruling does not address the fundamental constitutionality of the mandate but only allows the current stay to remain in place. This essentially returns the case back to the Sixth Circuit to continue through the legal process. That said, if returned to the U.S. Supreme Court again, most observers feel the court will ultimately rule the mandate itself unconstitutional. The timing is also consequential in that the ETS is only effective for a six-month period. The lack of a federal standard could spur additional action at the state level. The impact of the Omicron variant in the coming weeks is likely to impact policymaker’s decisions. More details.
Paid Leave – Major employers are following Walmart’s lead and abridging their COVID-related paid sick leave programs, conforming to new CDC guidelines that recommend isolation for five days, rather than ten. CVS, Walgreens, and Amazon are providing five days of paid leave for eligible full- and part-time workers, except where state or city paid leave laws provide for more. The companies offered up to two weeks of paid leave earlier. The benefit only applies to employees who are vaccinated, approved for a reasonable accommodation, or otherwise covered by local laws. More details.
Paid Leave
California – The governor unveiled new legislation to revive supplemental paid sick leave policies as part of a $2.7 billion coronavirus response package. The state’s previous supplemental COVID-19 paid leave law expired in Sept. More details.
Maryland – Legislation to create a paid family leave program was introduced allowing workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave. It would be funded through a state-administered insurance pool into which both employees and employers contribute. If the legislation passes, Maryland would join nine other states and the District of Columbia, which already established paid family and medical leave laws. More details.
Labor Policy
U.S Senate – The Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) narrowly advanced the nomination of David Weil to head the Labor Department’s Wage & Hour Administration. Weil served in the same role – the nation’s chief enforcer of federal minimum wage and overtime pay laws – from 2014-2017. In Aug., the committee deadlocked on an 11-11 vote and the status of the nomination had been unclear ever since as Democratic leadership weighed their options. In the meantime, much of the business community including the National Restaurant Association and the International Franchise Association voiced vehement opposition to his nomination citing his previous record in the job. It is unclear when the nomination will go to the full senate for confirmation. More details.
Labor Activism
Amazon – Employees in a Bessemer, Alabama fulfillment center will vote by mail next month in a rerun election on whether to unionize. Ballots will be mailed out Feb. 4 and must be received back before the counting begins on March 28. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, was handily defeated in a vote last year. But it appealed the results, alleging Amazon intimidated workers and pressured them to cast votes in a mailbox the company had installed on its property in view of security cameras. Amazon has denied the allegations. More details.
Starbucks – This week three additional elections have been scheduled in Jan. for stores in Mesa, AZ, Eugene OR, and Knoxville, TN. Numerous other locations have petitioned the board to begin the process, including stores in Hopewell, NJ, Washington, DC, and Tallahassee, FL, among others. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) also certified a victory for the union at a second Starbucks store in the Buffalo area. That Buffalo store has been in dispute. Those votes were tallied in Dec. but the outcome remained inconclusive as the union challenged the ballots of several employees. The Board agreed with the union that the challenged ballots should not count, giving the union a 15-9 win, giving the union two victories (out of three) in the Buffalo market. More details.
Sustainability
New York – The governor announced her intention to pursue an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program in an effort to address increasing amounts of recyclable products ending up in state landfills. In her 2022 State of the State address, Gov. Hochel claimed the solid waste industry accounts for 12 percent of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, she says the state has been recycling less each year since 2021, while seven million tons of paper and packaging waste are produced each year. Under the proposed EPR program, manufacturers will be responsible for managing their products and packaging at the end of their useful lives, removing the financial burden from taxpayers. While legislation has not been introduced, expect the new Oregon and Maine laws passed last year to serve as a blueprint. More details.
Key Takeaways
- With a great deal of attention rightfully focused on labor union activism in general and the Starbucks campaign in particular, it could be easy for the employer community to forget that the PRO Act is still pending in the U.S. Senate and only a few votes away from passage.The legislation represents the most significant set of proposed changes to the FLSA in decades. The bill would provide new protections to workers seeking to unionize and penalize companies that violate workers’ rights. It could also make it more difficult for companies to classify their workers as independent contractors. And, due to the joint employer provisions, it could upend the franchise business model. Additionally, it would repeal all state-level right to work laws as well as legalize a range of currently restricted strike activity. For example, it would expand protections for intermittent, slowdown, and partial striking as concerted activity protected under the National Labor Relations Act. Brands need to remain vigilant and vocal to ensure this fundamental threat to the business model does not pass out of the senate.
- While the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court this week continues the stay of the Administration’s large employer mandate, it does not necessarily curtail states and cities from proceeding with similar mandates of their own. And if a few large blue states and metros go forward, we could have a scenario where a significant percentage of the industry workforce is covered by a mandate. In other words, the issue itself is far from over and employer’s need to continue to be very engaged in this space.
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.