The California Grocers Association has filed federal lawsuits against Daly City and San Jose, California, challenging the grocery pay mandate ordinances approved in those cities, reports Progressive Grocer. Daly City has required an additional $5 an hour and San Jose has mandated an extra $3 an hour for a select group of grocery store employees.
These lawsuits have similar claims to cases CGA has filed in Long Beach, Montebello, Oakland, San Leandro, and West Hollywood.
“In addition to clearly violating federal and state law, the extra pay mandates will harm customers and workers,” said Ron Fong, president and CEO, CGA. “A $5/hour mandate amounts to a 28 percent average increase in labor costs for grocery stores. That is too big a cost increase for any grocery retailer to absorb without consequence. Options are few. Either pass the costs to customers, cut employee or store hours, or close. Already five stores in Los Angeles County have closed after extra pay mandates were enacted.”
This comes after Kroger Co. announced the closure of two additional Ralphs stores and one Food 4 Less stores in Los Angeles, which the retailer says was precipitated by the new city council mandate that requires extra pay for frontline workers. Full Story
Related: Kroger Shuts Down More Stores; The Kroger Co. Shuts Down Locations.