California bill prohibits grocery stores from having self-checkout if worker standards aren’t met

By Ashley Zavala

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — If you’re buying anything from a carton of eggs to a bottle of laundry detergent, the experience at your grocery store’s self-checkout station could look and feel different under a proposed California law.

SB 1446 would prohibit grocery and convenience stores in the state from having self-checkout stands if they don’t meet certain labor requirements outlined in the proposal. Those requirements include having one worker monitor no more than two self-checkout stations, plus public notice of any new technology the stores might implement that could impact the workplace.

The bill also limits the number of items customers can buy at self-checkout stations and would also prevent customers from buying items that are under extra layers of security such as skincare locked behind a case, or electronics wrapped in an anti-theft tag.

The lawmaker who wrote the proposal, Democratic State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, said the measure is meant to combat retail theft and keep workers safe.

“We’ve focused a lot on retail theft and certainly given all the crime bills that have passed, communities like mine — South Central LA — have a lot at stake here,” said Smallwood-Cuevas. “If our communities are going to have to take accountability for retail theft, we think the retailers and the grocers should be doing the same.”

But grocers vehemently argue the measure is not at all about retail theft.

“You can call a tree a duck, but that does not make it a duck,” said Daniel Conway, the Vice President of Government Affairs for the California Grocers Association. Conway noted the bill was not part of the bipartisan retail theft package backed by Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders, and the bill is not supported by law enforcement.

“This comes down to labor unions trying to impose staffing and operational mandates on our stores,” Conway said.

“We do not see a lot of theft through self-checkout,” said Chelsea Carbahal, the Vice President of Community Affairs for Raley’s. “If a thief is going to steal, they’re going to walk right out the door.”

The bill is co-sponsored by two powerful labor groups, the California Labor Federation and United Food and Commercial Workers. A recent analysis of the proposal shows the groups said the bill would “improve customer experience and ensure the job quality and safety for workers.”

The proposal is a few steps away from becoming state law. It recently survived a major legislative hurdle, but it’s sitting in a committee as labor and business groups work on an agreement. With a week and a half left in the legislative session, they have just days to do it.

“We’re in talks, this is the time to do it,” said Smallwood-Cuevas. “We’re trying to find a pathway for us all to put forward.”

Smallwood-Cuevas and several other state lawmakers are heading to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago for a couple of days, which could make the window for talks even smaller.

“Right now, SB 1446 is far off the mark,” Conway said. “The reality is, they’re performing emergency surgery on a bill and they’re shorthanded and they don’t have a lot of time.”

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