A Sacramento County Supreme Court judge has temporarily suspended a new California law that increases protections for fast-food workers and is scheduled to go into effect January 1. one.
The order comes as a response The lawsuit was filed on Thursday. By a coalition of major restaurant and business groups that supported an effort to overturn the so-called House Bill through a referendum on the California ballot in November 2024. voters have a say.
The coalition called Save Local Restaurants opposed the State Department of Industrial Relations’ efforts to implement AB 257 on 1 January. 1 argues that it renders the law unenforceable as referendum efforts continue. The coalition said enforcing the law could set a harmful precedent that threatens voters’ right to a referendum.
Governor Spokesperson Erin Mellon Gavin Newsom’s office said on Thursday that the law would go into effect once election officials complete the process of verifying voter signatures required for the referendum. But in an email, state officials said “of course they will abide by any court order.”
AB 257, also known as the FAST Recovery Act, will, among other things, create a workers’ representative body with the power to raise wages.
This temporary restraining order Released “in light of the incredibly short time the Court has been given to hear this matter” by Sacramento County Supreme Court Judge Shelleyanne WL Chang. The case was opened on Thursday and requested an injunction for the next day.
The decision blocks enforcement of the law until the court decides whether to hear the case and issue an injunction. A hearing will be held in January. 13.
The deadline for election officials to complete random sample verification of signatures is January 1. 25. The California state department will decide whether to approve the referendum after verification is complete.
Save Local Restaurants posted a little more from: 1 million unverified signatures this month is well above the minimum required, which makes it likely that the referendum will be approved for the ballot.
AB 257, which Newsom signed On Labor Day, workers were the focus of intense lobbying by restaurants and business groups. Fast-food companies and franchisees argued that this unfairly favored their industry and would impose higher labor costs on operations and cause food prices to skyrocket.
The landmark law creates a first-of-its-kind council with the power to set standards for franchise restaurant employees’ working hours and other workplace conditions. It can also raise workers’ minimum wage to $22 an hour.
The act requires the signatures of 10,000 fast-food restaurant employees to move forward with the council’s creation after the law comes into effect.
The California Service Workers International Union, which sponsored AB 257 and opposes efforts to overthrow it, said it nearly doubled the number of signatures required by law to set up the Fast Food Council.
After AB 257 became law, labor rights activists who supported the law claimed that the signatures supported the referendum. fraudulently obtained. Supporters of the referendum described the complaint, filed both with the California secretary of state and the attorney general’s office, as “nonsense”.
