Wages
Michigan – A state court ruled that the legislature violated the state’s constitution in 2108 when it significantly amended voter-approved minimum wage and paid sick leave ballot initiatives. In 2018, just prior to the election, the Republican-controlled legislature utilized an “adopt and amend strategy,” under which they passed as legislation the pending ballot language and then after the election the legislature significantly amended them. The judge ruled that such practices diminish the people’s ability to initiate laws which he said violates the state’s constitution. If ultimately implemented, the provisions call for an increase in the minimum wage to $12/hr and then annually adjusted for inflation thereafter. It also calls for an immediate adjustment in the cash wage for tipped employees to $9.60 (80 percent of minimum wage), adjusting to 90 percent in 2023, and then full elimination of the tip credit by 2024. With regard to the paid leave provisions, all employers would be required to provide 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked (capped at 72 hours for employers with more than 10 employees and capped at 40 hours for employers with fewer than 10 employees). The state’s assistant attorney general filed a Motion for Stay which, if granted, would delay implementation of the ruling until all appeals have been exhausted. More details.
Paid Leave
Maine – Activists began collecting signatures to place a measure on the 2023 ballot expanding the state’s existing paid leave program. Currently, the state program offers 40 hours of paid leave for any reason to most workers. The new measure calls for 2 weeks of paid leave at a time or 16 weeks per year for circumstances including a child’s birth, recovery from health conditions, and taking care of family members. The program would begin in July 2026 but it would be funded by a new tax on wages that kicks in a year earlier. At businesses with 15 or more employees, employers and workers would each have to pay 0.43 percent of wages into a fund, adding up to a 0.86 percent tax in all to pay for the costs of the program at first. Proponents need to collect 63,000 signatures by early next year to qualify. More details.
Labor Policy
NLRB – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) committing to share information and coordinate training and outreach “to better root out practices that harm workers” in the gig economy and elsewhere in the workforce. Of particular focus, the agencies will work to address worker misclassification, noncompete agreements, and promote collective bargaining. The agency reached similar agreements with the Labor Department (DOL) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) earlier this year. More details.
Amazon – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) executed coordinated, simultaneous surprise inspections of Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago, and Orlando in conjunction with New York federal prosecutors after investigators received complaints about the working conditions within some of the online retail giant’s facilities. The inspections followed an announcement that an employee died at one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers in New Jersey last week during the company’s Prime Day event. The agency had previously named Amazon as one of the “dirty dozen” in a report issued by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH) which listed businesses that have committed “egregious” safety violations that endangered their workers. Expect other agencies of the pro-union Biden Administration to continue pressuring the company. More details.
Labor Activism
Chipotle – The union behind the organizing effort at an Augusta, ME unit has filed a complaint with the NLRB after the company announced it would permanently close the location. In late June, the unit became the chain’s first outlet to file for a union election, seeking to organize under Chipotle United, which is not affiliated with any larger unions. The petition came after employees walked out of the restaurant earlier in the month, protesting working conditions and understaffing. Chipotle said the location has been closed to the public since June 17. The company denied that the permanent closure of the restaurant was due to the union petition, citing difficulties in staffing the location. More details.
Lululemon – Workers at a location in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a unionization election. According to the NLRB filing, they are filing under the name of the “Association of Concerted Educators” due to the fact that workers in sales positions in Lululemon’s brick and mortar stores are referred to as “educators” by the company. Wages at the store range from $15/hr-$17/hr but the workers appear to be frustrated not with wages and benefits but with the company culture and a perceived lack of inclusiveness. If successful, it would be the first of the 315 U.S. locations to unionize. More details.
Medieval Times – Employees at a unit in Lyndhurst, NJ voted 26 to 11 to join the American Guild of Variety Artists. They will join a wide array of performers represented by the guild, including the Radio City Rockettes, some circus performers, and the character actors who perform at Disneyland in California. The employees are seeking higher pay and better treatment. Their current starting wage is $14/hr. Management sent a note to employees outside the New Jersey location saying the company planned to negotiate in good faith but that it would not agree to anything not in its best interest. More details.
Starbucks – To date, 315 stores in 36 states are in the process of holding a union election. 198 units have voted to unionize, 37 having rejected the union, and a handful of outcomes are still undecided. More details.
Trader Joe’s – Workers at a store in Hadley, ME, will begin voting next week as they seek to become the first unit in the chain to unionize. The store has about 100 employees and they are being organized by their own independent union, Trader Joe’s United. More details.
Delivery
San Francisco, CA – DoorDash and Grubhub have struck a tentative deal with San Francisco legislators to drop their lawsuit against the city in exchange for modifications to the local law capping delivery fees for restaurants at 15 percent. In June of 2020, the city made their temporary pandemic-related cap permanent and the platforms filed a lawsuit soon after. New compromise legislation, which was tentatively approved by the city this week, would keep the 15 percent cap but allow restaurant owners to opt out of it in favor of paying more for better placement on the apps. A final vote will take place next week. DoorDash already uses this model in localities without a delivery-fee cap, allowing restaurants to pay a 25 or 30 percent rate to improve their promotion on the app. More details.
Scheduling
Walmart – Two former employees filed a lawsuit against the retailer claiming the company violated their rights to a predictable and regular schedule and regularly violated Philadelphia’s Fair Workweek ordinance. They are filing the suit on behalf of what could potentially be “thousands” of hourly, nonexempt Walmart employees in the city, according to the lawyer on the suit who works at Community Legal Services. The Philadelphia Fair Workweek ordinance, which took effect in April 2020, requires companies to give workers two weeks’ notice of schedules, pay a premium if schedules are changed after that window, and offer available shifts to current workers instead of hiring new ones. Under the city law, nine hours of rest is required between shifts. More details.
Data Privacy
U.S. House – The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a comprehensive data-privacy bill in a 53-2 bipartisan vote. The bill attempts to set a national standard for how businesses, particularly tech companies, collect and use data. As written, the bill preempts state privacy laws and as a result, most of the Californians on the committee voted against it. Additionally, it does include a private right of action component. Chances for long term passage are still unclear. The retail community, while encouraged by the initial vote, is still urging that significant changes be made to the legislation. More details.
Key Takeaways
- How the NLRB handles the closing of locations by Chipotle and Starbucks will likely be precedent setting. Both brands – for different reasons – recently closed locations that were in the process of unionizing, or recently unionized. The unions representing both sets of workers assert that the companies are being retaliatory and are required to negotiate such an action with the union. How the NLRB approaches these cases is likely to indicate how the Board will approach similar cases in the future.
- The level of unprecedented coordination between important federal agencies to support collective bargaining and other organizing efforts can’t be understated. While Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)s are commonplace between agencies, the current coordination between the Labor Department, the NLRB, the EEOC, the SEC, the FTC, and DOL with regard to employee misclassification, discrimination, and the promotion of union organizing is without precedent. Brands need to recognize that missteps in these areas will elicit a comprehensive and coordinated reaction from a wide range of federal regulators.
Podcast
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