Fast-food workers to get ‘just cause’ protection from firing under NYC Council bills
Fast-food workers will get protection from unfair firings, under a bill set to pass in the City Council on Thursday.
Legislation from Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) will bar fast-food joints from laying off employees for any reason other than misconduct or failure to do the job.
As part of the workforce deemed “essential” by the authorities, fast-food workers have been working through pandemic shutdowns and shouldering extra tasks like sanitizing eateries, Lander noted.
“When workers want to complain that there’s no PPE or their bosses aren’t paying attention to social distancing or say, ‘I need some scheduling flexibility because I need to take my mom to a doctor,’ they are worried that they could be fired on a whim,” he told the Daily News on Tuesday.
His “just cause” legislation will require employers to use progressive disciplinary steps before firing anyone and provide written explanations for terminations, among other measures.
While the state is widely viewed as allowing employers to retain or fire workers “at will,” that’s only because there’s no law on the books one way or the other about circumstances for laying off people, according to Lander.
A separate bill from Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) will require fast-food restaurants to take seniority into account when determining whom to fire when economic woes leave no other choice.
“Fast-food workers in New York City have been the victims of arbitrary termination and unfair reduction of hours which was only exacerbated by COVID-19,” Adams said in a statement. “Just cause legislation is a necessary step to bring accountability to fast-food companies and security to their employees.”
Both bills were introduced in 2019, in the wake of the successful “Fight for $15” campaign to raise the city’s hourly minimum wage.
Mayor de Blasio said he supports the “just cause” legislation.
“Fast-food workers deserve protections and fair compensation, which is why the mayor was proud to fight for a $15 minimum wage,” his spokeswoman Laura Feyer said in a statement. “The mayor is very supportive of these additional protections and looks forward to them becoming law.”
