NYC Fast-food Workers Battle “Unfair Firings”

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. - New York City’s fast-food employees were the first to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour. They then pushed for improvements in the way national restaurant chains set their work schedules. Now, they are asking city officials to protect them from firings without a valid reason and let them appeal dismissals through arbitration, reports the New York Times.

This is the sort of security that unions usually bargain for, and if these employees succeed, this will the first time that a municipality has required fast-food businesses to show “just cause” for firing workers.

City Councilman Brad Lander, a Democrat from Brooklyn, supports the bill. He said he has read surveys of fast-food workers who claim that a many have been fired unfairly. One woman said she was fired from a fast-casual restaurant for not smiling enough.

However, restaurant industry officials and their attorneys say the proposal is just another effort by the Service Employees International Union, which has been trying to organize fast-food workers since 2012.

“We’re always skeptical about any efforts by the SEIU., that they’re really anything more than a front to help them increase their dues-paying membership and their political agenda,” said Matthew Haller of the International Franchise Association.

Two years ago, the union’s powerful local, 32BJ SEIU, successfully pressed the council to impose rules for the setting of work schedules at fast-food and retail outlets after workers complained they were given short notice about their work schedules and couldn’t plan their lives.

Last year, the restaurant industry sued the city in state court, arguing that it does not have the authority to tell certain businesses how to deploy their workforces. The suit is ongoing.

According to Michael J. Lotito, a labor lawyer for the restaurant industry, New York’s requiring “just cause” for firings by fast-food employers would be a first in the country. New York City, San Francisco and Seattle have been competing to “out-progressive one another” by imposing labor-friendly regulations on low-wage businesses, he said.

But Councilman Lander disagreed, saying the proposed legislation is needed, regardless of whether it might be part of a union’s campaign to organize employees. He cited a recent survey by advocates for low-wage workers that indicated that two-thirds of workers fired from fast-food jobs said they were fired without being given a reason.

“No one should fear being fired for no reason at all,” Lander said. “[And] this is not saying an employer has to keep a person who’s not doing their job well.”

The steady tide of proposals to impose new rules is frustrating restaurant owners, such as Spencer Rubin of the Melt Shop sandwich chain based in Manhattan. Rubin said his company never fires a worker without warning or an explanation.

“Ultimately I’m a fan of making our employees’ lives better, but some of these rules make it really challenging for us to operate,” he said. “It is a little odd that fast-casual and fast-food restaurants continue to be singled out.”