Labor forces controlling four of the nine seats on California’s Fast Food Council have revealed what workplace concessions they’ll seek in addition to a 3.5% hike in the minimum fast-food wage when the quasi-regulatory agency meets on Wednesday.
Included on the list are more restrictions on changes in fast-food work schedules; guarantees that fast-food workers will get the pay due them should their employer sell or close the business; a crackdown on employers who violate current workplace regulations, including safety measures; and the systemization of a way for fast-food workers to communicate more readily with the Council.
The list came from the California Fast Food Workers Union, a group affiliated with Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the industry’s largest labor group and a key force in creating the Council.
The Council has the authority to reset fast-food wages every January. The current minimum wage for the sector is $20 an hour, the rate that took effect April 1 under the law that established the panel.
“It’s always been about more than $20/hr, and we’re just getting started,” the Workers Union said in airing the list.
As part of the compromise that created it, the Council was shorn of the power to set working conditions for most fast-food workers within California. The law that established the panel provides a pathway for directly proposing changes in workplace standards to state regulators, but the recommendations are not binding.
The Workers Union had indicated back in March that it would push for a 3.5% hike in the minimum wage for fast-food employees—the highest permitted under law—when the Council meets for a second time. That gathering was recently set for Wednesday morning.
Two members of the union hold seats on the panel, along with two SEIU representatives. Four positions are held by fast-food employers, with the ninth vote controlled by Nick Hardeman, a state legislative aide who was appointed as chairman by Gov. Newsom.
The panel is empowered to review fast-food wages at least once every year and set a hike of up to 3.5%. A simple majority of Council members is required to approve the increase, which then becomes mandatory.
Conversations in recent months with a variety of Council members revealed that both labor and management representatives expect a more fractious gathering than the first get-together of the group in March. That session, the participants agreed, was more of a meet-and-greet, since members were prohibited by law from holding even informal get-togethers beforehand.
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