Welcome to Government Watch, a weekly Restaurant Business column focused on politics, regulation, legislation, and other governmental issues of relevance to the restaurant industry. This week's edition looks at several new legislative currents that could affect restaurant employers, along with a backlash against the THC sales boom.
Lobbyists for labor-intensive businesses like restaurants are being forced to add a new term to their lexicons: “captive audience laws.”
The measures prohibit employers from penalizing staff members who decline to attend on-site meetings where the company’s political preferences are espoused. Proponents aren’t concerned that workers may be forced to hear arguments for or against a candidate in the November elections; their objective is preventing businesses from strong-arming employees into listening to why the boss would prefer the workplace remain union-free.
The meetings can still be held, apparently. But there can’t be retribution for opting not to attend.
As the International Foodservice Distributors Association pointed out in its most recent roundup of government issues pertaining to members, captive audience laws have been a focus in at least four states this summer, including restaurant-rich California and Illinois.
Hawaii began enforcing its rule in July, while a captive audience prohibition was signed into law by Gov. Jay Pritzker in Illinois. California’s legislature has passed a bill, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet to indicate whether he’ll sign it. He has until the end of the month.
A measure was vetoed by the governor of the usually deeply blue state of Colorado, Jared Polis.
Protections for employees who skip an anti-organizing meeting are already in place within Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
The flurry of activity in recent months is another indication of the leverage unions are exerting in the run-up to Nov. 5.
Pencil in ‘right-to-disconnect,’ too
The activity also fits a growing global movement to limit employers’ call on how workers spend their time while not fulfilling the duties of their jobs.
In late August, Australia adopted what’s known as a right-to-disconnect law, or a prohibition against requiring workers to communicate with their employers after they clock out. The objective is ensuring employees don’t have to answer to their bosses during hours for which they’re not being paid.
Measures similar to Australia’s are already in effect within France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and Canada. The movement has apparently not yet reached the U.S., though restaurant chains have been sued in the past for sending newsletters and staff-wide emails to workers without paying them for the reading time.
Pushback on the THC boom
Restaurants’ hopes of capitalizing on the growing hunger for THC-laced foods and beverages are being dimmed by state efforts to curb what’s being characterized as alarming levels of abuse.
California, for instance, has adopted emergency regulations to stop merchants from selling pre-made hemp consumables that have even a trace of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that gets a consumer high. As of this week, the only places that can sell foods or beverages with THC content are state-licensed cannabis dispensaries.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said emergency action was needed because hemp products containing THC were often ending up in the mouths of children.
“We will not sit on our hands as drug peddlers target our children with dangerous and unregulated hemp products containing THC at our retail stores,” the governor said in a statement.
The prohibition apparently applies to restaurants that also sell retail products to-go.
New York has also cracked down on the sale of THC-containing products outside of licensed dispensaries, and Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons issued an executive order at the end of August to ban the sale of foods or beverages that contain hemp-derived THC unless the items are regulated. Since there’s virtually no regulation of those products at present, the governor’s office noted, it’s virtually an across-the-board ban.
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