LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council voted 10-2 Tuesday to advance a proposal extending protections under its 2024 Fair Work Week Ordinance to fast-food workers, including predictable work schedules and paid labor-rights training.
The council instructed city attorneys to draft an ordinance extending the protections and directed relevant departments to develop and report back on a framework for a Know Your Rights training program.
Both items are expected to return to the City Council for a final vote before being implemented.
Council members John Lee and Traci Park voted against the matter.
"Right now corporations have all the power and they're using it to make record profits at the expense of working people," City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who introduced the proposal alongside Councilman Curren Price in 2024, said. "This is about leveling the playing field and making sure workers have the information, the protections and the power to stand up for themselves on the job."
The proposal aims to extend protections under the city's 2024 Fair Work Week Ordinance to fast-food workers. The ordinance requires large retailers to provide employees with their work schedules at least two weeks in advance and give workers at least 10 hours' rest between shifts or provide extra pay.
Fast-food workers would be able to better plan around their work schedules. Additionally, the Fast Food Fair Work Week ordinance would establish an annual six-hour paid, in-person or virtual Know Your Rights training covering wage and hour laws, Fair Work Week protections, worker misclassification, meal and rest breaks, and workers' rights under the California Fast Food Council, among other topics.
Several fast-food workers attended Tuesday's City Council meeting to express support for the proposal. Among them was Silvia Galvez, an LA Yum Yum Donuts worker and member of the California Fast Food Workers Union.
"Getting a more stable schedule means real stability for fast food workers and our families," Galvez said. "We are happy to see this measure move one step closer to the win we need, and we will keep fighting to ensure LA's 50,000-plus workers also secure the in-person `Know Your Rights' training that will give us the tools we need to protect ourselves on the job."
The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action, Unite Here Local 11, Move LA and other organizations supported the proposal.
The California Restaurant Association and some local restaurant owners opposed the proposal, arguing the requirements would impose additional costs on businesses.
In a letter to the City Council, the association said the proposed ordinance would create duplicative and costly requirements.
"California already has some of the most extensive workplace rights notices and training on topics such as workplace violence, sexual harassment, health and safety, food safety, and other workplace rights. By mandating rights training by groups that are not neutral parties, the (proposed law) would not only duplicate existing law but also force neighborhood restaurants to pay thousands of dollars so groups with ulterior motives can hold team members as a captive audience."
"This is especially inappropriate considering that it would raise operating expenses dramatically, and since the $20 fast food minimum wage took effect, more than 1,150 restaurants have shut down in the City of Los Angeles," the association wrote in its letter.
The association also argued the mandated six-hour training would give third parties access to workers' data amid heightened fears of immigration enforcement.
Juan Carlos Copeland, who owns fast-food restaurants in LA and employs more than 200 workers, urged the City Council to oppose the ordinance.
"The state's minimum wage law has already forced me to cut hours and eliminate positions just to keep my doors open. These decisions hurt both my employees and the customers," Copeland said. "This ordinance adds more weight onto businesses that are already struggling to survive."
A report commissioned by McDonald's and compiled by Beacon Economics and Pepperdine University found that about 70.6% of some 1,200 workers surveyed opposed the proposed paid training, while 29.4% supported it.
The survey also found that most workers preferred shorter training formats and flexible and online training options.
According to Soto-Martinez's office, fast-food workers are among the city's most vulnerable low-wage workers, facing unpredictable schedules, wage theft, unsafe working conditions and a lack of knowledge about their workplace rights.
Research cited by his office from Harvard, Northwestern University, UCLA and UC Berkeley found the fast-food industry is among the "most toxic" sectors in L.A., with about 91% of California fast-food workers experiencing at least one type of labor violation and 88% not knowing their workplace rights.
Households with fast-food workers are also twice as likely to fall below the federal poverty line, according to a 2021 report published by the UCLA and UC Berkeley labor centers.
City News Service
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