OAKLAND – Employees at large supermarkets in Oakland will receive an increase of $ 5 an hour after the City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed an emergency law stating “risk payment” until the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
Oakland joined Long Beach, Seattle and Santa Monica to take that step. Other cities, including Berkeley, San Jose and Los Angeles, are considering similar actions, which were encouraged by workers and their unions, but condemned by the food retail sector.
“We can help to get the essential workers with lower wages at a time when companies are reaping profits,” said Oakland chairman Nikki Fortunato Bas, who presented the decree together with adviser Noel Gallo, during the board meeting.
The emergency law applies immediately to large supermarkets – which it defines as “15,000 square feet in size … which (sell) mainly domestic food” and employ 500 or more people across the country. These stores in Oakland include Cardenas Markets, Safeway / Albertsons, Save Mart, Target, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, according to a city memo.
Many supermarkets increased workers’ pay in the first months of the pandemic, but most stopped doing so after that. Lucky Stores continued to pay the hazard pay and Trader Joe’s announced on Monday that it would increase its coronavirus “thank you” salary increases from $ 2 an hour to $ 4 an hour above employees’ base salary.
According to a study by the think tank Brookings Institution, based in Washington DC, some of the 13 largest retail companies in the country saw their profits skyrocket 40% in 2020 compared to the previous year and, together, earned an average of $ 16 , Extra 7 billion in profits. At Albertsons Co., which owns the Safeway supermarket chain, profits in the first two quarters of 2020 increased 153% compared to the same period in 2019, according to the report.
However, frontline workers saw little of that money. The companies studied by the Brookings Institution have increased the salaries of their frontline workers by an average of just $ 1.11 an hour since the pandemic began.
Workers and their advocates say there is a need to change, especially as COVID-19 cases have continued to rise at higher levels since the pandemic began.
Several grocery workers and advocates spoke in favor of the law during the public comment portion of the meeting, as well as in written statements to Bas’s office.
“Risk payment means additional payment for performing dangerous tasks or work that involves physical difficulties. Grocery work is now dangerous work and physical difficulties are illness and death, ”said Devin Ramos, a 23-year-old employee at Oakland Safeway. “My workday puts me in a busy store, in close contact with hundreds of customers every day, and I have no realistic way to distance myself socially while doing my work tasks. I have no way of getting all customers entering my store to wear a mask, or to prevent them from removing the masks. “
Melody Neal, an employee at Lucky, emphasized that the hazard premium helps keep employees working, providing an incentive for work that became much more difficult during the pandemic.
“What we normally do once or twice a day, we do three to four times a day. The lines are long. People are frustrated and stressed, ”said Neal, 37.
Food industry officials have complained that the Oakland and similar ordinances across the state and country are an overload and an unfair burden on retail stores.
“Extra payment obligations will have serious unintended consequences not only for grocery owners, but also for their employees and customers,” said Ron Fong, president and CEO of the California Grocers Association “An extra $ 5 (per hour) payment order ) is equivalent to a 28% increase in labor costs. That is huge. Grocery stores will not be able to absorb these costs and negative repercussions are inevitable. “
Fong said grocery owners would be forced to pass on extra costs to consumers by raising prices.
In California, it is illegal to raise the price of food, consumer goods or medical and emergency supplies by more than 10% of what a seller charged for that item on February 4, 2020, when the pandemic was just beginning.
The association filed a federal lawsuit against Long Beach, the first city to introduce a hazardous duty surcharge. The lawsuit argues that the Long Beach Hazard Decree is unconstitutional because it targets supermarkets to the detriment of other industries and interferes with federal labor law that protects the collective bargaining process.
Fong told this news organization in an interview Friday that the association would consider filing lawsuits against other cities considering similar decrees.
Miya Saika Chen, chief of staff to the council chairman, said the law will not affect employers with collective bargaining agreements that waive their provisions. It also allows employers who already offer risky pay to use that amount as a credit to achieve the $ 5 hourly bonus. A store that currently offers $ 2 an hour in addition to the base salary, for example, would only have to add $ 3 more.
The proposed Oakland ordinance would end when the Bay Area was determined by the state to be at a “minimum risk” level, or the yellow level, according to California’s color-coded risk assessment model.
Oakland City Administrator Ed Reiskin pointed out during Tuesday’s meeting that the city department charged with enforcing workplace standards is not able to take on the extra work of answering questions, monitoring law enforcement and investigate complaints.
Chen pointed out that the law has a private right of action option, so employees can file a court notice if their employers violate the law.
Counselor Gallo cited earlier outbreaks this year at Cardenas Market in Oakland, where several employees tested positive for COVID-19, noting that grocery workers are at greater risk of contracting the disease than those who can work from home.
“We need to recognize workers, support their health needs and ensure that they have compensation to continue,” he said.