Grocers sue Oakland over new $5-an-hour hazard pay mandate for supermarkets
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A Safeway store on College Ave. in Oakland. Safeway offered hazard pay at the beginning of the pandemic and then withdrew it. Oakland is now requiring large grocers to pay workers $5 an hour more as hazard pay.Paul Chinn / The Chronicle
The California Grocers Association on Wednesday sued Oakland, just one day after the City Council voted to require larger food sellers to give workers a $5-an-hour pay increase as compensation for the added risks and stress of operating on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic.
The trade group, which represents most grocery stores in California, is seeking to have the new law declared invalid and unconstitutional.
KUNC
Bert Cutshall (left, Zoom screenshot), Maricela Guzman (middle, picture by Adam Rayes) and Phillip Tucker (right, courtesy picture) all have been working at King Soopers for years. They all say the pandemic has put them at a difficult crossroads between their health and economic wellbeing.
Updated: March 12, 2021 at 12:46 PM MST
The arbitrator sided with all but one of the workers in March, according to UFCW 7. Safeway declined KUNC s request for comment on the arbitration. King Soopers has yet to respond.
People 65 and older began qualifying for the COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 8 under the state s phase system. Grocery workers younger than 65 began qualifying in early March.
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