SB 725: Grocery Workers

On February 16, 2023, Senate Bill 725 by Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), was introduced to address grocery worker relocations, terminations, and mass layoffs. SB 725 would add Labor Code Section 1401.1.

SB 725 would prohibit a grocery establishment, when a merger occurs, from ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 180 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order. The notice would have to be made to the employees, as well as the Employment Development Department, the local workforce investment board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs.

In addition, the grocery establishment must include in its notice the elements required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). However, a grocery establishment is not required to provide notice if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war.

Finally, if a grocery establishment that has a mass layoff in a geographic area designated by United States Department of Agriculture as a food desert, then the required notice must also be provided to the Department of Justice, the State Department of Public Health, and the State Department of Social Services.