Council: Law would protect public safety, worker welfare
CITY HALL — In a move that could potentially get the city sued, elected leaders are moving forward with a law that would prohibit grocers from immediately firing employees of a newly acquired grocery store.
The law, known as “Grocery Worker Retention,” is based on a similar law passed recently in Los Angeles that is being challenged in court by the California Grocers Association, a nonprofit, statewide trade association representing approximately 500 grocers operating more than 6,000 food stores in California and Nevada.
CGA officials said they are considering whether to file a suit against Santa Monica if the City Council gives final approval to the law, which is expected in the coming weeks.
CGA contends the Los Angeles law and the Santa Monica ordinance are “improper, unlawful and unenforceable” as they are preempted by federal law. In addition, CGA leadership said worker retention violates equal protection rights of employers and conflicts with state food-related health and safety laws.
CGA also charges that grocery worker retention is another move by labor unions to maintain an unfair advantage over grocers, and that elected officials supporting the law are beholden to unions.
“As a businessman, this is just another roadblock in a myriad of obstacles standing in the way of building stores in Santa Monica,” said Peter Larkin, president of CGA. “This will have the effect of limiting shopping choices for consumers.
“I think it sends a message to the broader business community, let along food retailers, that politicians are hostile to our interests,” Larkin added. “It says the City Council is willing to unfairly target a certain class of business people, which sends a message to others that maybe it would be better to invest elsewhere.”
Councilmember Kevin McKeown, who sponsored the ordinance, said he and his colleagues are supportive of worker retention because they are concerned about public health, not because City Council members are in the pockets of labor unions.
If 30 to 60 employees were to leave a grocery store at once and were replaced by new employees, McKeown said he is concerned that training will not be done correctly and, as a result, food quality could be jeopardized.
The council also expressed concern for low-wage grocery workers who may suffer hardship by suddenly losing their jobs due to an ownership change. With the retention ordinance in place, it is the council’s intent to protect the health, safety and welfare of these families that may have to scramble for new employment and could lose their homes in the city’s highly competitive and expensive housing market.
“Do you want your family (to risk eating) food from untrained handlers?” McKeown said. “The reasons for this law are clear on the council record, both when I first introduced the concept and when the council unanimously supported it last week.”
Worker retention is heavily supported by local unions, and grocery workers who have been affected by a transfer in ownership have testified before the council at least twice, offering horror stories of poverty and despair following a sale. Those workers said the parent company of Albertsons is planning to close several of its unionized stores and replace them with non-union Whole Foods markets.
Representatives from Albertsons did not return phone calls seeking comment.
There are two Albertsons stores and one Whole Foods Market within Santa Monica.
If the ordinance is approved, grocers with stores more than 15,000 square feet in size would be required to retain employees for up to 90 days following a transfer in ownership. During that period, employees could only be fired for just cause.
Within five days of the sale or transfer, the current employer will be required to post a notice of the change in ownership. The notice must be posted throughout the entire time of the transfer, according to the proposed law.
Within 15 days of the sale or transfer, the former owner will be required to provide new management with a list of the names, addresses, dates of hire and employment classification for each grocery worker currently employed.
If it is found that the store can be operated with fewer employees than hired under the previous owner, the current store operator must retain workers based on seniority, according to the proposed law.
In a report to the council, City Attorney Marsha Moutrie seemed confident that CGA will not file a suit against City Hall if the law is passed. Moutrie believes CGA intends to resolve the issue by sticking with its suit against Los Angeles. In the event of litigation, Moutrie said in a report to the council that City Hall would likely prevail against the CGA’s constitutional claims, but that the arguments of preemption would be more problematic because federal and state labor laws may have more weight.
“We’ll just have to see what happens,” Moutrie said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 17, 2006. Read the original PDF.