{"id":18431,"date":"2021-01-15T22:15:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=461b821c96aa19921144555fbd1e5816"},"modified":"2021-01-15T22:15:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:15:11","slug":"charging-covid-19-failures-california-lawmaker-seeks-to-crack-down-on-fast-food-chains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/15\/charging-covid-19-failures-california-lawmaker-seeks-to-crack-down-on-fast-food-chains\/","title":{"rendered":"Charging COVID-19 failures, California lawmaker seeks to crack down on fast food chains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was reported and written for The Los Angeles Times by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bill introduced in the California State Assembly on Thursday excoriates the fast food industry for its response to the pandemic, contending that chains have \u201croutinely flouted\u201d measures intended to protect the state\u2019s 500,000 fast food workers \u2013 and their millions of customers \u2013 from COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, the legislation cites complaints filed by workers with county public health departments in accusing the industry of failing to give workers adequate protective gear, denying them sick pay, requiring them to work while ill and refusing to inform them when co-workers are infected by the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the pandemic, \u201ca disempowered workforce faces a crisis in an industry with a poor history of compliance with workplace, health and safety regulations,\u201d the legislation reads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAST Recovery Act, which stands for \u201cFast Food Accountability and Standards,\u201d contains withering criticism of the industry\u2019s response to the pandemic but doesn\u2019t detail what new regulations it seeks to impose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the California Restaurant Association said she hadn\u2019t seen the bill and thus couldn\u2019t comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonzalez said regulatory specifics will be worked out after hearings in March. She said she hopes the measure will boost the state\u2019s enforcement of health and workplace protection laws and give workers a voice over workplace safety issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure would be the first to impose specific workplace rules covering the burgeoning fast food industry, she said. It\u2019s modeled on a law she introduced in 2016<\/a> to regulate the janitorial industry in response to alleged sexual assault by supervisors<\/a> exposed in a collaborative investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Frontline, the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, Univision and KQED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill doesn\u2019t refer to any fast food companies by name. Gonzalez said it is aimed at changing industrywide standards for workplace safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to empower workers to have some sort of voice on the job,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry has been \u201crife with abuse, low pay, few benefits, and minimal job security, with California workers subject to high rates of employment violations, including wage theft, sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as heightened health and safety risks,\u201d the measure states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonzalez said she wrote the bill with input from the Service Employees International Union, which has sought to unionize workers at McDonald\u2019s, the nation\u2019s dominant fast food chain, and organized strikes over COVID-19 safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A report<\/a> by the Los Angeles Times and Reveal cited workers\u2019 complaints filed with federal, state and county regulators in 37 states, claiming McDonald\u2019s employees had been pressured to work in close quarters alongside ill co-workers or come to work when they were ill themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when cases of COVID-19 flared among workers, outlets remained open for business, according to the complaints, which were filed from March through Dec. 13. Some of the complaints date back to the chaotic early weeks of the pandemic, but many were filed in the late summer or fall, after stores had time to solidify safety protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all of the complaints were closed without a workplace inspection, records show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonald\u2019s has disputed COVID-19 safety complaints, saying that the vast majority of its outlets are clean and safe and that the company has gone to great lengths to enforce health and safety rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An SEIU spokesperson said that today, the union would lead another series of strikes around the state, this time targeting Carl’s Jr. and Burger King outlets as well as McDonald\u2019s over COVID-19 safety issues. Gonzalez said she intended to show up to support walkouts in Sacramento.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was edited by Esther Kaplan and copy edited by Nikki Frick.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lance Williams can be reached at <\/em>lwilliams@revealnews.org<\/em><\/a>. Follow him on Twitter: <\/em>@LanceWCIR<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>

The post Charging COVID-19 failures, California lawmaker seeks to crack down on fast food chains<\/a> appeared first on Reveal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Reveal<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new legislation charges that the industry has flouted rules designed to keep workers safe during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The post Charging COVID-19 failures, California lawmaker seeks to crack down on fast food chains<\/a> appeared first on Reveal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[862,4666,304,4667,4668,4669,3683,3684],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18431"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60966,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18431\/revisions\/60966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}