One California court has issued a ruling which will freeze a new law that has been trying to create a board-permitted raising of minimum wages in regard to fast food workers until the total number of signatures against the measure can be officially counted.
Known as the FAST Recovery Act, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act seeks to set up establish a “Fast Food Council” which would be responsible for creating “sectorwide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions,” as explained via a summary of the new legislation. In the wake of granting a short temporary hold targeting the law, the Sacramento Superior Court elected to ban enforcement of the measure until petition signatures are officially looked over.
“Today’s Court decision protects the rights of over one million California voters who demanded their say on this law before bearing its burden,” expressed Save Local Restaurants, a group that has managed to gather well over a million signatures to put the FAST Recovery Act on statewide ballots for the 2024 election, in a release. “We appreciate the Court upholding the state’s 100-year-old referendum process as well as the well-established legal precedent that ensures California voters are able to consider the laws passed by their legislature.”
The new law would only be applied to any restaurant chain sporting more than 100 locations across the United States, though an exception exists for any franchise which operates a bakery that “produces for sale bread as a stand-alone menu item.” Those on the Fast Food Council set up by the legislation would be allowed to increase the minimum wage to a level of $22 per hour, marking a spike of close to 40% from where it currently sits at $15.50 in the state of California.
In the wake of singing this piece of legislation last year, Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) would be allowed to personally appoint a total of 8 of the 10 sitting members on the Fast Food Council. The new law saw support from the very powerful Service Employees International Union, which claims that the statute will “increase corporate accountability” throughout the industry.
A poll from the Employment Policies Institute, which reached out to Labor economists, discovered that roughly 83% stand against this FAST Recovery Act; while a different survey coming from the International Franchise Association claimed that just 32% of Californians stand against the law. “All signs are telling legislators to reject this bill,” exclaimed International Franchise Association CEO Matt Haller in a release. “Voters don’t want it, consumers don’t want higher prices, and franchisees don’t want corporations being forced to take over their businesses.”
