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Dear John
No one should be fired based just on a whim. But for years in the fast food industry, that's been the norm for workers. Low pay and little job security have long made the industry rife with abuses and indignities.
Today, the New York City Council took a huge step forward for workers' rights with the passage of just cause legislation I sponsored with Councilmember Adrienne Adams to end unfair firings in the fast food industry. Read about it in The New York Times.
Fast food workers have been on the frontlines of this pandemic, serving their neighbors, working in tight quarters, taking on new responsibilities for sanitizing, and yet often unable to speak up about health and safety issues for fear of losing their jobs.
In our hearings on this legislation last winter we heard countless stories about random, abrupt firings that characterize the precariousness of jobs in the fast food industry. We heard from a worker who was fired for failing to smile enough at customers. Another worker told us about being fired after taking sick leave to deal with back pain. Another was fired after requesting a last minute schedule change to help a neighbor with child care.
So many of these stories could or should not have been legal under existing anti-discrimination, harassment, and sick leave laws, but when employers don’t need to give any reason at all to dismiss a worker, it becomes all too easy to skirt other worker protections.
Now, employers will be required to implement fair dismissal policies, including a clear disciplinary process and a written rationale (a “just cause”) before letting someone go. When fast food chains need to make layoffs for budgetary reasons, they’ll be required to go in the order of reverse seniority, to ensure that layoffs don’t just become an excuse for bringing back arbitrary, unfair firings.
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