The
California Labor Commissioner has fined a McDonald’s franchisee for
firing four employees who participated in strikes to protest coronavirus
safety conditions in their Los Angeles workplace.
R&B
Sanchez, which operates a McDonald’s on 1716 Marengo St. in Boyle
Heights, was fined Friday more than $125,900 in lost wages and
retaliation penalties and ordered to offer the workers their jobs back.
The franchisee may appeal.
“Too many workers fear retaliation if
they report a problem or stand up for their rights,” said Labor
Commissioner Lilia García-Brower in a statement Wednesday. “California
law has anti-retaliation protections in place that make it illegal for
employers to punish workers for exercising their labor rights, such as
reporting a workplace safety hazard”
According to the California
Department of Industrial Relations, this is the second fine for
coronavirus-related retaliation. The Labor Commissioner issued a
citation in September in a case in which a worker was suspended for one
day for wearing a mask.
In a statement, R&B Sanchez said it was reviewing the citations to determine how to proceed.
“We
are disappointed to learn that a local labor agency has issued
citations that do not reflect the truth of what is actually occurring in
our restaurant,” it said. “We will continue to enforce the rigorous
policies and practices we have in place to help protect crew and
customer health and safety, and we will continue to work with the L.A.
County Public Health Department to comply with applicable laws and
public health guidance regarding COVID-19.”
During the pandemic, fear of retaliation has made many employees reluctant to voice safety concerns.
Some are low-wage workers living in the country illegally, who don’t
qualify for unemployment benefits. They worry that they might not find
another job in the current economic climate if they are fired.
The
labor commissioner’s Retaliation Complaint Investigation Unit has
received 990 coronavirus-related retaliation claims, of which 465
assert health and safety issues. The unit strives to complete cases
within a year, but that isn’t always possible — sometimes due to
staffing issues, according to Amie Bergin, a senior deputy labor
commissioner. It can be painstaking work reaching out to witnesses and
trying to track down employers who have since closed.
Retaliation can include termination, a pay or hours cut, or a move to
a less desirable shift. Workers alleging retaliation need only assert
they had “a good-faith belief” that working conditions were unsafe, said
Bergin.
According to the citations, between April and August
2020, the workers complained verbally to managers about health and
safety conditions. In June and July, they joined strikes to protest
inadequate precautions against the virus. Several also filed complaints
with the L.A. County Department of Public Health and California’s
Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
On Sept. 4, the
workers were terminated for “job abandonment,” the state regulator said.
It wrote that strike notices had been delivered to the franchisee,
indicating that the workers intended to return to their jobs, and that
the workers subsequently requested to do so.
Salomon Sanchez, who
worked as a cook at the McDonald’s, told The Times that he went on
strike partly because there wasn’t adequate social distancing in the
kitchen, with “each person almost stuck to the other.” Workers, he said,
also weren’t regularly given disposable gloves and he’d sometimes reuse
them from one day to the next.
‘We had to make them last as long as possible,” he said.
Another
worker, Lizzet Aguilar, said that in the spring, her manager dismissed
concerns that she could be exposed to the virus from customers not
wearing masks.
“She said, ‘look Lizzet, we’re not going to stop
selling because of your concerns, we’ll sell to them whether they bring
masks or not,’” Aguilar recalled.
After she was fired, Aguilar
said she grew anxious about how she would pay her rent and support her
5-year-old son and husband, who didn’t have a steady job. She also
worked two days a week at another McDonald’s, and began calling her
manager there every day to see if they could use extra help — even if it
meant working night shifts.
“It was really hard for me,” said Aguilar. “It affected me economically and psychologically.”
R&B
Sanchez has previously told The Times that the business provides gloves
and masks to employees on a daily basis, adheres to physical distancing
guidelines and sanitizes regularly.
Tia Koonse, a legal and
policy research manager at the UCLA Labor Center, said that it’s rare
for the state to fine employers for retaliation and that the many months
it typically takes to investigate complaints can discourage workers
from voicing concerns.
“Retaliation cases are notoriously really,
really difficult,” she said. “The workers know it’s going to take a very
long time for their employer to be held accountable and to get
reinstated.”
In October, the Board of Supervisors passed a motion directing the
office of the County Counsel and the Department of Public Health to
investigate the McDonald’s. It responded to a letter from Bob
Schoonover, the president of the Service Employees International Union’s
Local 721, that said the McDonald’s had fired four workers for going on
strike to protest inadequate protections against the virus and held
that the franchisee was “operating in noncompliance with even the most
basic COVID-19 safety precautions.”
In a statement, Supervisor
Hilda Solis, who wrote the motion, said the Department of Public Health
found several minor violations that were “eventually addressed” but
that the county found the issue of retaliation against employees to be
outside its jurisdiction.
That has since changed. In November,
county supervisors unanimously approved a program in which workers from
certain sectors will form public health councils
to help ensure that employers follow coronavirus safety guidelines. The
program pairs councils in various industries with third-party
organizations that will educate workers on health orders and help them
report violations.
They also passed an ordinance to prohibit
retaliation for belonging to the public health councils or for reporting
public health violations, making violators liable to a fine and
aggrieved workers eligible to bring an action in court.
