Supervisors order rehire of workers
Law for companies of 100 employees or more
In an effort to help thousands laid off from large employers during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, including a large proportion of the city’s restaurant workers, San Francisco has passed an emergency ordinance granting those same workers a shot at returning to their old jobs for comparable pay.
The “right to reemployment” ordinance, spearheaded by Supervisor Gordon Mar, applies to large businesses that laid off at least 10 employees due to the pandemic during any 30day period since Feb. 25. While it doesn’t solely cover the restaurant industry, it aims to help food service workers in particular, a group that has been disproportionately impacted by layoffs.
Through the ordinance, when local large businesses reopen and are ready to rehire staff, they will be required to offer jobs first to former employees ahead of new applicants. In addition, each position will have to provide wages and benefits comparable to what an employee in that position received before the pandemic. If a former employee’s position has been eliminated, that employee should be offered a similar post based on their qualifications.
Nearly 39,000 employees in San Francisco have been been affected by the pandemic, according to
WARN Act notices filed with state and local officials that report permanent and temporary layoffs. While around 29,000 employees are said to have been laid off only temporarily, according to the notices, nearly 5,000 have been permanently laid off. Most of the laidoff workers are food service industry workers, city officials said.
Layoffs have risen sharply as the pandemic has forced business closures and dampened economic activity. There have been 352 WARN notices filed with the city since February. During the same time period last year, only 13 WARN notices were filed, affecting around 700 workers.
The legislation was approved by the Board of Supervisors by a vote of 10to1 on Tuesday, after a series of sweeping amendments. Supervisor Catherine Stefani voted in opposition, and said the ordinance could hurt the reopening of some local businesses.
Among the most significant amendments was a change to the size of businesses covered under the ordinance. At first, the ordinance called for all businesses with 10 or more employees to follow the “right to employment” guidelines, which drew criticism from small business owners and organizations throughout the city, according to Mar. The amended and approved version of the ordinance now focuses only on businesses with 100 or more employees.
Mar described the process of preparing the ordinance as “difficult,” saying that the amendment constitutes a tradeoff: by making it so small businesses do not have to adhere to the ordinance, their employees are losing out on any protection. The decision, he said, was based on concerns from local small businesses about the potential financial strains the ordinance could place on them.
“We want to be sensitive to the challenges small businesses are facing and are focusing this ordinance on larger employers for that reason,” Mar said.
Multiple people called in to
Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, including several recently laidoff restaurant industry workers, to express support for the amended ordinance. Among them was former Tartine barista Matthew Torres. At Tartine, before the pandemic, Torres was active in helping the employees of the business try to establish a union. Tartine has more than 100 employees and would have to follow guidelines laid out within the emergency ordinance.
He said the amended ordinance will help many workers, especially at Tartine, who are “in a situation where many ... are laid off and we aren’t sure if we’re going to come back.”
Laurie Thomas, the executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, said her organization was one of many to work with Mar on the ordinance. And even though the legislation was amended with small businesses in mind, there remain restaurant and food companies that could be harmed.
“I understand the intent, which is great. But there are some places with multiple locations and more than 100 employees that will have a lot of additional paperwork to deal with right now. That can be hard for them,” Thomas said. “The ordinance is much better than it was, and we’re all glad we could work together to get it to this point.”