California Assembly Bill 257, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act (the “FAST Act” enacted in 2022), was to become effective January 1, 2023.
The FAST Act established a 10-member Fast Food Sector Council to oversee and regulate many aspects of fast food employee working conditions, pay and benefits – as well as decisions regarding décor, marketing, packaging, etc. Given that the FAST Act affected chains with 100 or more locations across the nation, the target of the Act was clearly franchisors of fast food restaurants.
Efforts to overturn the FAST Act began immediately after its passage. In January 2023, a referendum on the FAST Act qualified for the California November 2024 ballot and suspended the implementation of the FAST Act until voters decide whether to ratify or repeal the law.
But supporters of the FAST Act were not willing to wait. On February 16, 2023 they introduced Assembly Bill 1228, the “Fast Food Franchisor Responsibility Act” (“FFRA”) to the California Assembly. This bill calls for fast food restaurant franchisors to share legal responsibility and liability for their franchisees’ violations of employment standards and worker health and safety laws to the same extent that those laws may be enforced against their transgressing franchisees.
Specifically, Section 2(e) of the FFRA states:
“. . .requiring fast food restaurant franchisors to share in the liability for employment violations at their franchised stores will appropriately allocate...
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