Judge upholds city's law protecting fast-food workers from firing - New York Daily News

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A city law that protects fast-food employees from being fired for no reason was upheld Friday by a federal judge.

Manhattan Federal Court Denise Cote judge tossed the lawsuit brought by the New York State Restaurant Association and the Restaurant Law Center that challenged the city’s “Wrongful Discharge Law,” which stops fast-food giants that have at least 30 franchises nationwide from firing employees without “just cause or for a bona fide economic reason.”

The law also requires neutral arbitration to settle disputes about fast-food worker firings and forces employers to provide a written explanation within five days to laid-off employees with clear reasons for their termination.

“The City’s Wrongful Discharge Law is a validly enacted minimum labor standard. The law is...aimed at promoting job stability for hourly employees in a particular sector — the fast food restaurant industry,” Cote wrote.

The groups representing the restaurants had argued that the law invaded the collective bargaining process between companies and unions repping workers.

Protections against arbitrary termination are usually banged out at the contract negotiating table and New York State had a long tradition of at-will employment for fast-food workers, lawyers argued.

The fast food trade group also argued that the law discriminated against out-of-state businesses, but Cote said that the law applied equally to large New York brands.

“It makes no express distinction between national fast food chains and chains with more than thirty locations that are located solely within New York State,” Cote wrote.

“We applaud the court for giving workers the justice they deserve by upholding this vital law so fast food workers can’t be fired on a whim,” said Corporation Counsel Georgia Pestana in a statement.

“For too long, fast food workers — a predominately minority and female workforce — have been treated unfairly, yet they have been there for us on the frontlines throughout the pandemic.”

source: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-city-law-upheld-firing-just-cause-fast-food-workers-20220211-yk4shwxxjjepzipudrosp2tmm4-story.html

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