Silicon Valley fast-food owners could pay for workers’ rights training

It’s been a good week for fast-food workers in Silicon Valley.

Employees at local McDonald’s, Taco Bell and other fast-food franchises roared with applause Tuesday when the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved creating a training program for fast-food workers on their state-mandated labor rights. While workers support the move, store owners say it’s unnecessary as they already provide training.

Supervisors will review options in August for a full-day training course on topics such as wage theft and benefits; sick parental and family leave; workplace safety; pregnant worker protections; and whistleblower rights, among others. A final decision would be made sometime after. Supervisor Susan Ellenberg requested a public hearing no later than July 30 for both workers and local fast-food franchise owners to give input.

Supervisor Betty Duong, who was an employment law attorney from 2014 through 2016 and represented work cases before state labor commissioners, proposed the training idea.

“I would say half of the cases that I worked on were small business owners who did not have access to HR companies or attorneys or accidental noncompliance with the changing landscape of labor law,” Duong said before the vote.

Her proposal proved divisive in a valley balancing its status as an entrepreneurial haven with deepening wealth disparities — an environment economists recently warned is fertile for “instability and revolt.”

While scores of Spanish-speaking fast-food workers and labor advocates spoke in support of the idea, local franchisees showed up to lambast the idea of paying to educate their workers.

County officials, who must balance a massive structural budget gap and are staring down a potential fiscal calamity, propose having employers pay a fee for workers who enroll in the training to recover the county’s costs for developing the program. Supervisors are mulling over incentives for employers to buy into the training, such as an official seal of recognition.

“We have many employees that have worked for us over 20 years and we spend extensive time with them,” Stephen Peat, who owns three McDonald’s franchises in Gilroy, said at the meeting. “We have a wide open door policy. We make sure our employees know who we are and we know who they are and take good care of them with lots of training. This training is unnecessary, it’s duplicative.”

Others argued the training is necessary and that workers aren’t always informed of their rights.

Sela Steiger, a staff attorney at Legal Aid at Work, who co-authored a recent report on fast-food workers’ pregnancy and parenting struggles, shared her findings at the meeting. The survey of 405 workers revealed frequent parental rights violations, such as restrictions on parental leave or breastfeeding at work. About 95% of workers surveyed said they didn’t know about miscarriage leave, and 85% said they didn’t know about paid bonding leave.

“Nearly nine in 10 (surveyed) worried about retaliation for taking time off including need for prenatal care and urgent medical care,” Steiger said in public comments.

Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga said she used to be a small business owner and understands where franchisees are coming from. She questioned whether the county had a plan to measure the success of the training program.

“To be honest, at this time when resources are tight, we’re going to be asked by the public for measurable outcomes,” she said, adding  the county should offer other incentives for business owners, such as awards of free equipment.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.