Article from Reason by Billy Binion.
In recent years, the Big Apple’s fast food industry has trailblazed for employee protections and higher wages, particularly as the driving force behind the “Fight for 15.” It’s a battle they won with the passage of New York’s $15 minimum wage law. Now they’re setting their sights on eliminating unfair firings.
“Workers have told me they’ve been fired for no reason at all,” Democratic City Councilman Brad Lander, who introduced a bill to ban the practice in the fast food industry, told The Guardian. “Should employers have the right to fire people for any reason, including the most trivial reasons? Most people would say that’s not a right people should have.”
Proponents say that, in dismissing employees, fast-casual restauranteurs should need to show “just cause”—that is, proof of serious misconduct. But what compromises that misconduct is somewhat ambiguous. Under Lander’s legislation, workers will be able to appeal firings via arbitration, a complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs, or with a lawsuit.
Ironically, some of those terminations are likely the result of the movement’s last legislative victory, with restaurants purging jobs in the wake of the city’s minimum wage hike. Fifty-three percent of New York’s “limited service” establishments—otherwise known as fast-casual spots—plan to eliminate positions this year in response to the wage increase, according to a survey by the New York Hospitality Alliance. That comes after 50 percent did so in 2018.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit:Â By Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 00:05, 29 August 2014 (UTC) (Broadway Crowds) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
Government has ZERO business in the running of a private business. IDIOTS voted this Commie in. Now you get to deal with his big government control.
Any employee who does not work hard enough to earn their wages should be fired,
no other reason is needed.
Any employee who slows down other workers should be fired,
no other reason needed.
Any employee who has proven their unreliability should be fired,
no other reason needed.
etc.
As a former business owner, I agree with you completely. I was fortunate and never had major problems, but did fire one lady for stealing from the register. Guess that was a good enough reason.
So correct, Deborah. I’m 77 and have NEVER seem or heard of ANYONE being fired for No reason. We have to darn much interference in our lives by government.
lesson learned GET OUT of NY!
Deborah, Andy will drive all the rest of the businesses out of New Your, before he’s done making it the most progressive state in the union.
Could it be that these liberal dunderheads are forcing small businesses to cut back on the number of employees because of their interference. Minimum wage was not supposed to be able to support anyone let alone a family. It was to help inexperienced entry level get a start and, hopefully go up from there. Jacka**es like deBlasio really are clueless as well as completely stupid.
Mr. Higginbotham,
You are absolutely right. Not only does government have no business telling a business how to operate, but it most certainly has the most idiotic ideas about the minimum wage in NYC. or anywhere.
Where do these fools come from? Obviously they are just politicians appealing to the ignorant and uninformed. What other way would they have a platform from which to speak?
I would move my business to a business-friendly state.
New York is a right to work state !!! An employer or employer can terminate employment without at reason at any time !!!
A jump to $15.00 per hour is going to force many small businesses to close. Is this the real Demon-crats goal-?
Vote Republicans-!!!