Assembly Standing Committee on Labor and Employment

Kalra here. Flora here. Chen here. Haney. Ortega here. Reyes here. Ward. Quorum established.

All right, we have a quorum established. We have one item on the agenda of this wonderful evening. AB 1228. Assembly Member Holden, you may begin whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As amended, AB 1228 creates a path forward to resolve employer community concerns around the content of AB 257 while preserving fast food workers hard fought efforts to secure a seat at the table and means to raise standards. The joint liability provisions of AB 1228 will be replaced with an updated version of AB 257's Fast Food Council that will go into effect, providing the referendum is withdrawn by January 1, 2024.

AB 1228 is a historic Bill that creates $20 an hour minimum wage for over 600,000 fast food workers across the state. The increase takes effect in April of next year. Thereafter, the Council may establish minimum wage wages for fast food restaurant employees that take effect on an annual basis beginning on January 1, 2025. The hourly minimum wage established by the Council may increase on an annual basis by no more than three and a half percent.

The Council may elect to set minimum wage standards that vary by region. AB 1228, as amended, affirms that the purpose of the Fast Food Council to develop minimum fast food restaurant employment standards, including, as appropriate standards on wages and working conditions. The Bill ensures that there is equal representation on the Council between the fast food restaurant industry and the franchisee or restaurant owner, as well as fast food employees and employee advocates.

Finally, AB 1228 indicates that the Council does not have the authority to create or amend statute which is the same as AB 257. And the Council can't set regulations creating new paid time off benefits, such as paid sick leave or paid vacation, or predictable scheduling. I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

We have a motion. A second. Thank you Assembly Member. And witnesses, up to two minutes each.

Yes. Mr. Chair Members of the Committee. Randy Pollock. On behalf of the International Franchise Association, and also representing the National Restaurant Association, we are in support of the Bill. As amended. We want to thank the Governor's office, also someone we've been holding. This has been a two month process of a lot of negotiations, and we believe that this is a fair Bill, both for the workers and more importantly, to keep the franchise business model available in California. And with that, we would urge your aye vote. Thank you.

Thank you.

Kimberly Rosenberger with Service Employees International, proud to be sponsors of this Bill and very, very appreciative of everyone that insisted and helped fight to get this across the finish line. Our workers are so pleased to see this happening and we just want to urge your aye vote because when workers fight, everyone wins. Thank you.

Thank you. Is anyone else here in support of AB 1228? Anyone here in opposition to AB 1228? Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gus, my understanding is you want to say some sure. Some comments based upon the event really quickly. No, please.

Shane Gusman. On behalf of the Unite Here International Union, we don't have a position on this Bill, but we just want to thank the author and the sponsors, the speaker, the pro TEM, the Governor's office, helping us to get to a solution that resolves some issues in the fast food space in very specified locations. There's going to be some clarifying amendments that happen as we come back into session in January and we're good with the Bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yeah. So I know that there's been a lot of conversations and meetings, and I really want to thank the author. And as Mr. Gusman mentioned, the speaker's office and others that have been engaged, including the Administration, and just put on the record that I know that SCIU and Unite here have reached an agreement in terms of how they're going to proceed forward in terms of some changes. And I think some of the unintended consequences of the drafting Bill, that does happen sometimes.

I think that in this case, I'm happy to see that the agreement will include important amendments for fast food restaurants located in hotels, event centers, stadiums, airports, theme parks, museums, corporate campuses and gambling establishments. I know there's going to be further conversations on other jurisdictions as well.

And so I'm very grateful to all the stakeholders for coming forward and with the speaker in the pro TEM's office also for getting involved to make sure that what has been a couple of months of really hard work to get us to a place where there's agreement to get us to a place where we will have fast food workers that are more empowered and franchisees they'll have the opportunity to continue to operate under the model that currently exists is a huge win for California.

And I think that, as has been discussed a lot over the last couple of days, there was no intention to cause any other consequences. But I'm glad to see that a lot of work over the last day or two has made it clear that we're going to resolve any outstanding issues, certainly as we will need to do when we come back in January. But in the meantime, I think this is a great victory for workers.

I think it's great to have the industry come to the table and really work hard to find the compromised position. And I really want to thank the author for getting everyone to come together and find compromise. I think that it doesn't always happen when we see it happen. It's a beautiful thing, and it's something I think we can all be proud of. And so is there any other question or comments from any of my colleagues? Yes, Assembly Member Ortega, please.

I also wanted to thank the author and those who worked on the negotiations. Very proud and historic day to be able to vote for this today. Also look forward to working with some of the as was mentioned, some of the cleanup that we need to do, and we'll look forward to doing that. But in the meantime, very excited about supporting today's vote.

Thank you, Assembly Member Reyes.

I'll be saying it on the floor, but this is great. When you work on something for so long and everybody's at odds with one another, and then you finally are able to put a deal together that puts workers at the top, but doesn't do away with a business model that is also very important to so many Californians. And I really appreciate everybody at the table here and everybody else who helped to bring it here. Mr. Holden, my colleague from Glendale. Congratulations.

This is a lot of work. Pasadena. From Pasadena. We still count you as part of the...so thank you so much for all your hard work.

Anyone else? Okay, Senator Holden, would you like to close?

I would just like to say that when you gave your statement a moment ago, you took the words right out of my mouth, so I will respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you very much, sir. Madam Secretary, if you can, please take the roll call.

Vote motion is with recommendation that Senate amendments be concurred in Kalra aye. Flora not voting. Chen not voting. Haney aye. Ortega aye. Reyes aye. Ward aye.

All right, so that Bill is out. And before we adjourn, I just want to thank Megan Lane, Martin Vindiola and Lori Alvarez. This is the entire labor Committee staff. There aren't 10 other people, as you would imagine, back in the lob or something. The entire labor Committee staff is right here.

These three individuals who've worked so hard for working people, they work so hard for our state, for all Californians, and I appreciate them so much and very grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with all three of you. We're adjourned.

All right. Good work. Thank you, sir.