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SB-1446 Grocery retail store and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout and consequential workplace technology.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 07/08/2024 09:00 PM
SB1446:v93#DOCUMENT

Revised  August 15, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  July 08, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 11, 2024
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 06, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  May 16, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  April 09, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  March 20, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1446


Introduced by Senator Smallwood-Cuevas
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Gipson)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members McKinnor Lowenthal, McKinnor, and Ortega)

February 16, 2024


An act to add Part 9.6 (commencing with Section 2530) to Division 2 of the Labor Code, relating to private employment.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1446, as amended, Smallwood-Cuevas. Grocery retail store and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout and consequential workplace technology.
Existing law imposes certain requirements on grocery employers, as defined, upon the purchase or change in control of a grocery establishment, including requiring a successor grocery employer to retain eligible grocery workers for a specified period after transfer of the grocery establishment.
This bill would prohibit a grocery retail store or a retail drug establishment, as those terms are defined, from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are satisfied, including having no more than 2 self-service checkout stations monitored by any one employee and requiring the employee to be relieved of all other duties. The bill would require a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that offers self-service checkout to include self-service checkout in the employer’s illness and prevention program, as required by Division of Occupational Safety and Health regulations. The bill would require a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that intends to implement consequential workplace technology, as defined, to notify workers, their collective bargaining representatives, and the public at least 60 days in advance of the implementation of the technology with a general description of the technology and the intended purpose for of the technology. technology, as specified. This bill would establish remedies and penalties for a violation of the bill’s provisions, including a civil penalty of $100 for each day in violation, not to exceed an aggregate penalty of $10,000.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Part 9.6 (commencing with Section 2530) is added to Division 2 of the Labor Code, to read:

PART 9.6. Grocery retail stores and retail drug establishments

2530.
 For purposes of this part, the following definitions shall apply:
(a) “Consequential workplace technology” means artificial intelligence or automated decisionmaking systems technology that significantly impacts, eliminates, or automates eliminates, automates, or electronically monitors the core job functions agreed upon between an employer and an employee upon hire or following a subsequent change in position or department. Consequential workplace technology includes, but is not limited to, self-checkout robotics, wearable sensors, scanners, and electronic monitoring. and scanners.
(b) (1) “Grocery retail store” includes either of the following:
(A) A “grocery establishment,” defined as a retail store in this state that is over 15,000 square feet in size and that sells primarily household foodstuffs for offsite consumption, including the sale of fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products, canned foods, dry foods, beverages, baked foods, or prepared foods. Other household supplies or other products shall be secondary to the primary purpose of food sales.
(B) A “superstore,” defined as a store in this state that is over 75,000 square feet in size, that generates sales or use tax pursuant to the Bradley–Burns Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law (Part 1.5 (commencing with Section 7200) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code), and that devotes more than 10 percent of sales floor area to the sale of nontaxable merchandise.
(2) For purposes of Section 2531 only, “grocery retail store” does not include a discount warehouse or retail store where more than one-half of the items carried by the discount warehouse or retail store are sold in large quantities or in bulk and the discount warehouse or retail store requires shoppers to pay a membership or assessment fee.
(c) “Manual checkout station” means a station that is not a self-service checkout station and at which an employee provides human assistance to a customer scanning, bagging, or accepting payment for the customer’s purchases.
(d) “Retail drug establishment” means a person, including an individual, a corporation, a partnership, a limited partnership, a limited liability partnership, a limited liability company, a business trust, an estate, a trust, an association, a joint venture, a proprietorship, a joint venture, an agency, an instrumentality, a corporate officer, an executive, or any other legal or commercial entity, whether domestic or foreign, that has 75 or more businesses or establishments located within the state and is identified as a retail business or establishment in the North American Industry Classification System within the retail trade category 45611.
(e) “Self-service checkout” means an automated process that enables customers to scan, bag, and pay for their purchases without human assistance.
(f) “Self-service checkout station” means a station at which a customer can engage in a self-service checkout for the customer’s purchases.

2531.
 (a) A grocery retail store or retail drug establishment shall not provide a self-service checkout option for customers unless all of the following conditions are satisfied:
(1) At least one manual checkout station is staffed by an employee of the establishment who is available to any given customer at the time that a self-service checkout option is made available to that customer.
(2) (A) The employer has established a workplace policy that limits self-service checkouts to purchases of no more than 15 items.
(B) The establishment shall include signage within the self-service checkout area indicating the number of items that are permitted through the self-service checkout station.
(3) Customers are prohibited from using self-service checkout to purchase either of the following:
(A) Items that require customers to provide a form of identification, including, but not limited to, alcohol and tobacco products.
(B) Items subject to special theft-deterrent measures, including, but not limited to, locked cabinets and electronic article surveillance tags, that require the intervention of an employee of the establishment for the customer to access or purchase the item.
(4) (A) No more than two self-service checkout stations are simultaneously monitored by any one employee of the establishment.
(B) An employee shall be relieved from all other duties when monitoring a self-service checkout station, including, but not limited to, operating a manual checkout station.
(b) A grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that offers self-service checkout shall include self-service checkout in their analysis of potential work hazards for purposes of their injury and illness prevention programs required by Section 3203 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.

2532.
 (a) If a grocery retail store or a retail drug establishment intends to implement consequential workplace technology, the grocery retail store or retail drug establishment shall notify workers, their collective bargaining representatives, and the public at least 60 days in advance of the implementation of the technology with a general description of the technology and the intended purpose for of the technology. technology pursuant to subdivision (c).
(b) If a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment intends to implement consequential workplace technology for a purpose other than the intended purpose specified in the notice described in subdivision (a), the grocery retail store or retail drug establishment shall notify workers, their collective representatives, and the public of the other purpose 60 days in advance of the implementation of the technology pursuant to subdivision (c).
(c) (1) The grocery retail store or retail drug establishment shall notify workers and their collective bargaining representatives in writing by usual means of communication.
(2) The grocery retail store or retail drug establishment shall notify the public by posting the notice in a location accessible to the grocery retail store’s or retail drug establishment’s employees and customers.

2533.
 (a) An employer who violates this part shall be subject to a civil penalty of one hundred dollars ($100) for each day in violation, not to exceed an aggregate penalty of ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
(b) Upon the filing of a complaint by an employee, the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement shall enforce this part, including investigating an alleged violation, and ordering appropriate relief.
(c) In addition to other remedies as may be provided by the laws of this state or its subdivisions, any public prosecutor, as defined by Section 180, may also institute an action for a violation of this part, including an action seeking injunctive relief.

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REVISIONS:
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