SB 442: Grocery retail store and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout.

Existing law imposes certain requirements on grocery employers, as defined, upon the purchase or change in control of a grocery establishment, including requiring a successor grocery employer to retain eligible grocery workers for a specified period after transfer of the grocery establishment.

This bill would prohibit a grocery retail store or a retail drug establishment, as those terms are defined, from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are satisfied, including having at least one manual checkout station staffed by an employee who is available to any given customer at the time that a self-service checkout option is made available to that customer.

This bill would require a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that offers self-service checkout to include self-service checkout in the employers illness and prevention program, as required by regulations of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The bill also would require a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that intends to implement self-checkout to notify workers, their collective bargaining representatives, and the public workers and their collective bargaining representatives at least 60 days in advance of the implementation, as specified. The bill would prohibit an employer from taking certain actions against an employee who seeks to remedy violations of these provisions, as specified. The bill would not preempt any city, county, or city and county ordinance that provides equal or greater protection to workers.

This bill would establish remedies and penalties for a violation of the bills provisions, including make an employer who violates the bills provisions subject to a civil penalty of $10,000 for each day in violation, $1,000 per violation per day, not to exceed an aggregate penalty of $200,000.