On September 5, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act or FAST Recovery Act (AB-257).  In a breathtaking move, the state government, which is dominated at all levels by union-friendly politicians, will appoint a 10-member Council composed of employees, employers and “union activists” to set the minimum wages and working conditions of fast food workers in the state – however, the new Council will only have jurisdiction over non-unionized fast food restaurants.

Since unionized restaurants will be exempted from the law, they will be free to pay their employees lower wages and benefits than those set by the Council.  In short, the law is nothing but a blunt instrument designed to punish non-unionized workplaces.

The new legislation applies to “fast food chains” with 100 or more restaurants nationwide.  It defines a “fast food restaurant” as establishments that provide food for “immediate consumption either on or off the premises” for customers who select and pay for items before eating, and where the restaurant prepares items in advance.  The law does not apply to restaurants with table service.  In addition, certain bakeries and grocery establishments are exempted from the FAST Recovery Act.

The 10-member Council will be empowered “to establish sectorwide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions adequate to ensure and maintain the health, safety, and welfare of, and to supply the necessary cost of proper living to, fast food restaurant workers and to ensure and effect interagency coordination and prompt agency responses regarding issues affecting the health, safety, and employment of fast food restaurant workers.”

California’s minimum wage (already the highest in the nation) is currently $15/hour.  The newly constituted Council has authority to raise the minimum wage of fast food workers by 47% next year to $22/hour.  Starting in 2024, the Council can increase the minimum wage by up to the lesser of 3.5% or the adjusted Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage earners.  Further, the FAST Recovery Act creates a cause of action for discrimination or retaliation against any fast food worker and establishes the right to reinstatement.

It’s worth noting that the FAST Recovery Act was originally authored by the once and future AFL-CIO labor leader Lorena Gonzalez who briefly served in the California legislature long enough to sponsor the deeply unpopular AB 5 on behalf of the unions, which essentially eliminated independent contractors in the state; she also sent out a controversial “F*ck Elon Musk” tweet not long before Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters from California to Texas.  The FAST Recovery Act was heavily supported by the Service Employees International Union (the SEIU) and is obviously designed to induce fast food establishments to unionize or pay the price.  The bill exempts fast food establishments where the workers are covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement and the regular hourly rate of pay is not less than “30 percent more than the state minimum” for such workers.

Restaurant owners have already mobilized in opposition to the FAST Recovery Act and, on September 6, 2022, filed a “Request for Title and Summary for Proposed Referendum” with the California Attorney General.  Once a request for title and summary has been submitted, the Attorney General’s Office will facilitate a 30-day public review process and then prepare a circulating title and summary.  When the official circulating title and summary is complete, the Senate and Assembly may conduct public hearings on the proposed initiative measure but cannot amend it or prevent it from appearing on the ballot. The next step will be preparing the petition then, finally, circulating the petition and gathering signatures.  If enough signatures are obtained, the FAST Recovery Act will be stayed until it is decided by California voters either this November or in the 2024 election. The total number of signatures required to qualify a referendum is 623,212.

We will continue to monitor the FAST Recovery Act and provide updates.

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Photo of Tony Oncidi Tony Oncidi

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including…

Anthony J. Oncidi is the co-chair of the Labor & Employment Law Department and heads the West Coast Labor & Employment group in the firm’s Los Angeles office.

Tony represents employers and management in all aspects of labor relations and employment law, including litigation and preventive counseling, wage and hour matters, including class actions, wrongful termination, employee discipline, Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, executive employment contract disputes, sexual harassment training and investigations, workplace violence, drug testing and privacy issues, Sarbanes-Oxley claims and employee raiding and trade secret protection. A substantial portion of Tony’s practice involves the defense of employers in large class actions, employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination litigation in state and federal court as well as arbitration proceedings, including FINRA matters.

Tony is recognized as a leading lawyer by such highly respected publications and organizations as the Los Angeles Daily JournalThe Hollywood Reporter, and Chambers USA, which gives him the highest possible rating (“Band 1”) for Labor & Employment.  According to Chambers USA, clients say Tony is “brilliant at what he does… He is even keeled, has a high emotional IQ, is a great legal writer and orator, and never gives up.” Other clients report:  “Tony has an outstanding reputation” and he is “smart, cost effective and appropriately aggressive.” Tony is hailed as “outstanding,” particularly for his “ability to merge top-shelf lawyerly advice with pragmatic business acumen.” He is highly respected in the industry, with other commentators lauding him as a “phenomenal strategist” and “one of the top employment litigators in the country.”

“Tony is the author of the treatise titled Employment Discrimination Depositions (Juris Pub’g 2020; www.jurispub.com), co-author of Proskauer on Privacy (PLI 2020), and, since 1990, has been a regular columnist for the official publication of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Tony has been a featured guest on Fox 11 News and CBS News in Los Angeles. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading national media outlets such as The National Law JournalBloomberg News, The New York Times, and Newsweek and Time magazines. Tony is a frequent speaker on employment law topics for large and small groups of employers and their counsel, including the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”), PIHRA, the National CLE Conference, National Business Institute, the Employment Round Table of Southern California (Board Member), the Council on Education in Management, the Institute for Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, the California Continuing Education of the Bar Program and the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Bar Associations. He has testified as an expert witness regarding wage and hour issues as well as the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and has served as a faculty member of the National Employment Law Institute. He has served as an arbitrator in an employment discrimination matter.

Tony is an appointed Hearing Examiner for the Los Angeles Police Commission Board of Rights and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and a guest lecturer at USC Law School and a guest lecturer at UCLA Law School.

Photo of Ariel Brotman Ariel Brotman

Ariel Brotman is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She represents employers in all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, trade secrets, and…

Ariel Brotman is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employment Litigation & Arbitration Group. She represents employers in all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower, trade secrets, and breach of contract litigation, in both the single-plaintiff and class-action context. She also counsels employers on a diverse range of workplace issues.

Ariel earned her J.D. from USC Gould School of Law, where she was a member of the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal. During law school, she was also a clinical student in the University of Southern California Immigration Clinic. In addition, she served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Robert N. Kwan in the United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.