AgdaPkt 2021.04.12 Joint SA PFA - Complete Agenda Packet

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8.A. - Page 4 of 73 Covered Employees The ordinance has been drafted to require the payment of hazard pay to any individual who works in a Grocery Store or Drugstore on either a full-time or a part-time basis, and whose work exposes them to contact with store patrons. A detailed definition is included in the Ordinance. Exception for Collective Bargaining Agreements The ordinance provides that it does not apply to employers who have entered into a collective bargaining agreement that explicitly waives entitlement to the hazard pay the ordinance requires. Duration The urgency ordinance has been drafted to take effect immediately if adopted, and will expire on July 11. A regular ordinance, if adopted by City Council, will supersede the urgency ordinance when it takes effect 30 days afterthe second reading (anticipated May 26) and will also expire on July 11, 2021. It is anticipated that this will provide enough time for the covered employees to be vaccinated. Voluntary Credit and State -Required Paid Vaccination Leave The ordinance allows for large grocery stores and drugstores to apply any credit for hazard pay that has been employer -initiated, which can count toward the $5.00 per hour hazard pay requirement. For example, an employer offering $2.00 per hour in employer -initiated hazard pay would be required to pay an additional $3.00 per hour in hazard pay. A new state law signed by Governor Newsom, SB 95, Employment: COVID-19: Supplemental Paid Sick Leave, went into effect March 29, 2021 to September 30, 2021, and is retroactive to January 1, 2021. The bill requires employers with more than 25 employees to provide for broader supplemental sick leave benefits related to COVID-19, including paid time off to receive vaccinations. Thus, the proposed regular and urgency ordinance does not include separate provisions that require Covered Employers to provide for paid time off to receive vaccinations. It should be noted that if covered employees have exhausted all 80 hours of COVID-19 related sick leave as required by the supplemental paid sick leave, those employees might not be eligible to use COVID-19 related supplemental paid sick leave to obtain a vaccine if they have not yet received one. FnfnrramPnt The ordinance has been drafted to include key features found in the ordinances adopted by other California cities. These include a requirement that employers provide notice to their employees of the protections afforded by the ordinance and the provision of a private right of action authorizing employees to bring their own actions to enforce the ordinance. Legal Challenges to Other Ordinances The grocery store industry has sued multiple agencies to have hazard pay ordinances declared illegal. The industry argues that such ordinances violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause by singling out grocery stores of a certain size for regulation. In addition, they argue that the ordinances violate constitutional prohibitions against the impairment of contracts and that they are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, the federal law regulating labor relations and the collective bargaining process. Hazard pay ordinances are an extraordinary response to extraordinary challenges inflicted upon the communities across the state by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not surprisingly, there is not a well- established body of case law to provide guidance on the legal issues presented. The grocery store industry argues that hazard pay ordinances simply go too far in attempting to address the pandemic's impacts on Page 4 of 8 City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org 363