Grocery retail store and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details on enforcement mechanisms or consequences for non-compliance beyond the stated penalties.

Grocery and Drug Store Self-Checkout Rules

This law requires grocery stores and drugstores to have at least one staffed checkout lane when offering self-checkout options, mandates advance notice before implementing self-checkout systems, and sets penalties for violations.

What This Bill Does

• Requires grocery stores and drugstores to have at least one manual checkout station with an employee available whenever they offer a self-service checkout option.
• Includes self-service checkout in the employer's illness and prevention program as required by occupational safety regulations.
• Requires grocery stores and drugstores to notify workers, their union representatives, and the public 60 days before implementing self-checkout systems.
• Prohibits employers from punishing employees who try to fix violations of these rules.
• Establishes penalties for violating the provisions of this law.

Who It Names or Affects

• Grocery stores
• Drugstores
• Employees working at grocery stores and drugstores

Terms To Know

Self-service checkout

A system where customers scan their own items and pay without help from a store employee.

Manual checkout station

A traditional cash register where an employee scans and bags groceries for the customer.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if a grocery or drugstore violates these rules.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced in different areas of California.

Official Summary Text

SB 442, as amended, Smallwood-Cuevas.
Grocery retail store and retail drug establishment employees: self-service checkout.
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 at least one manual checkout station staffed by an employee who is available to any given customer at the time that a self-service checkout option is made available to that customer.
This 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 regulations of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The bill also would require a grocery retail store or retail drug establishment that intends to implement self-checkout to notify
workers, their collective bargaining representatives, and the public
workers and their collective bargaining representatives
at least 60 days in advance of the implementation, as specified.
The bill would prohibit an employer from taking certain actions against an employee who seeks to remedy violations of these provisions, as specified.
The bill would not preempt any city, county, or city and county
ordinance that provides equal or greater protection to workers.
This bill would
establish remedies and penalties for a violation of the bill’s provisions, including
make an employer who violates the bill’s provisions subject to
a civil penalty of
$10,000 for each day in violation,
$1,000 per violation per day,
not to exceed an aggregate penalty of $200,000.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF