Bill Text: CA SB725 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Grocery workers.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Veto sustained. [SB725 Detail]

Download: California-2023-SB725-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 725

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Introduced by Senator Smallwood-Cuevas

February 16, 2023

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An act to add Section 1401.1 to the Labor Code, relating to private employment.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 725, as introduced, Smallwood-Cuevas. Grocery workers: relocations, terminations, and mass layoffs.

Existing law provides that an employer, with certain exceptions, may not order a mass layoff, relocation or termination, as defined, at a covered establishment unless the employer gives written notice of the order to the employees of the covered establishment affected by the order and specified entities, including the Employment Development Department and the local workforce investment board.

Existing law, upon change in control of a grocery establishment, provides for a transitional retention period for grocery workers by requiring a successor grocery employer to hire from a list of eligible grocery workers provided by the incumbent grocery employer and to retain those employees for a specified period, except as specified. Existing law exempts from those provisions grocery establishments that are located in geographic areas designated by the United States Department of Agriculture as a food desert if specified conditions apply.

This bill would prohibit a grocery establishment, where the change in control is a merger, from ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 180 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives notice of the order to the employees of the covered establishment affected by the order, the Employment Development Department, the local workforce investment board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs. This bill would require the notice to also be served upon the Department of Justice, the State Department of Public Health, and the State Department of Social Services if the grocery establishment is located in a geographic area designated by the United States Department of Agriculture as a food desert.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1401.1 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

1401.1.

 (a) An employer that is a grocery establishment as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 2502 where the change in control as described in subdivision (a) of Section 2502 is a merger may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 180 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order to the following:

(1) The employees of the covered establishment affected by the order.

(2) The Employment Development Department, the local workforce investment board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs.

(b) An employer required to give notice of any mass layoff, relocation, or termination under this chapter shall include in its notice the elements required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 2101 et seq.).

(c) Notwithstanding the requirements of subdivision (a), an employer is not required to provide notice if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war.

(d) If the grocery establishment that is the subject of the mass layoff is located in a geographic area designated by United States Department of Agriculture as a food desert, the notice required by subdivision (a) shall also be served upon the Department of Justice, the State Department of Public Health, and the State Department of Social Services.