San Carlos won’t pursue hazard pay for workers

“The bottom line is there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing,” said Parmer-Lohan during the virtual City Council meeting Monday.

Hazard pay for grocery and drugstore employees has been a trending policy adopted across the state with similar $5 pay increases having been adopted in Daly City, South San Francisco, San Mateo and Millbrae. San Mateo County and Redwood City have also agreed to consider some type of hazard pay at a future meeting.

Ultimately, San Carlos was unable to come to an agreement on the ordinance with councilmembers citing concerns for legal fees leveraged against the city, equity for other front-line workers and hesitancy for butting into labor matters.

The ordinance would likely have applied to five locations in the city, Trader Joe's, CVS, Lucky, Walgreens and Dollar Tree. Each establishment is either offering increased pay during the pandemic or has offered a pay bonus, said Tara Peterson, assistant city manager.

Vice Mayor Sara McDowell said she was unable to support the potentially costly ordinance after taking into consideration the financial strain placed on the city’s budget during the pandemic. If the hazard pay were implemented the city could face a lawsuit by the California Grocers Association, which has pledged to pursue legal battles with any jurisdiction that implements a hazard pay ordinance on grocery stores.

“The threat of substantial legal fees to defend ourselves in federal court … gives me pause,” said McDowell, sharing appreciation for front-line workers. “We are a very small city and last year we had to make some really tough budget cuts including laying off some employees and I don’t want to be faced with that again.”

City Attorney Greg Rubens said the city would be responsible for covering $100,000 in legal fees at a minimum and upwards of $250,000 after what could be a long legal fight.

Also siding against the ordinance, Councilman Ron Collins said a city the size of San Carlos should not intervene in labor disputes. Instead, he shared support for approving a resolution encouraging employers to provide their employees with hazard pay during the pandemic.

“I think it’s a terrible idea to go down the road of telling these stores that they need to pay their workers money that they should already be paying even if it’s for a short period of time,” said Collins. “To me, it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Councilman John Dugan questioned the equity of the measure and its exclusion of other essential workers. Voicing concerns for forcing private companies to spend on the hazard pay he suggested the council later consider using federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to assist essential workers

With Rak still supportive of the measure, Parmer-Lohan attempted to persuade councilmembers to continue the conversation by supporting staff to bring back an ordinance at a later date. She noted that while businesses should implement hazard pay for employees, many are not, requiring the government to step in.

The measure failed but McDowell voiced hopes that the Board of Supervisors would take up their version of the ordinance that could potentially apply to the entire county.

While grocery store hazard pay failed to gain approval, the council unanimously supported allocating $110,000 to the Restaurant, Brewery and Winery Relief Program being allocated through the San Mateo County Strong Fund.

Having contributed $112,000 to small business and renter relief early on in the pandemic, the council opted to select a similar amount for the new program. Councilmembers also agreed to request the county direct a portion of the funds to breweries and wineries after highlighting the support the city has already given to restaurants.

“[Wineries and breweries] have sort of been impacted more because they’ve had to close more than restaurants and we’ve done a lot for the restaurants,” said Rak.

The county may not have to honor the council’s request when allocating grants. Still, the council said they could revisit the subject once federal relief funds were received.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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