In a letter sent two weeks ago to Lina Kahn, the Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) urged that the agency consider the many comments submitted by franchisees during the public comment period and to await the conclusion of an ongoing review by the General Accountability Office (GAO).…
Read More »The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) released new model notice forms last week and at the same time, updated its mandatory workplace poster. Fortunately, the PFML contribution rate for most employers has decreased with the new rates taking effect on January 1, 2023. That said, Massachusetts employers must provide a new PFML…
Read More »Speaking of California, it’s do or die this weekend for Save Local Restaurants, a coalition consisting of the International Franchise Association (IFA) along with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and the U.S Chamber of Commerce. They have spearheaded the effort to overturn the California FAST Act and by Sunday, December 4, the coalition must have…
Read More »After peaking earlier this summer, unionizing efforts at Starbucks stores across the country have seemed to slow down over the past few months, but the broader effort to organize within the QSR industry continues. Most recently, two locations of California-based Peets Coffee filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union representation elections. The…
Read More »Save Local Restaurants, a coalition consisting of the International Franchise Association (IFA) along with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and the U.S Chamber of Commerce is rapidly approaching a critical deadline for its ballot initiative to repeal the so-called FAST Act (Fast-food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act). After the FAST Act was signed into law…
Read More »Yesterday, Starbucks Workers United organized a one-day strike at over 110 unionized stores across 25 states around the country. According to a statement from the union, the strikes were said to be in retaliation for Starbucks’ anti-union activities, their previous efforts to defeat the unionizing efforts, and delays in scheduling bargaining sessions. Company spokespeople have…
Read More »We’ll let the major media talking heads comment on most of the big races and results across the country from Tuesday’s midterm elections while we highlight some of the issues and results that might be of greater concern to franchisees and other small business owners. That said, we note that once again, the results were…
Read More »Some state ballots also had questions relating compensation and tax policy looming. In that regard, voters were apparently feeling generous. Initiative 433 on the Nebraska ballot was approved and provides for a $15 per hour minimum wage to be phased in over the next three years. The measure passed easily with 62% of voters in…
Read More »In a Halloween release of her latest memo, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced her intention to limit employers in their ability to rely upon commonly used electronic monitoring and management technologies to monitor employee misconduct and performance issues. In Memorandum GC 23-02, Abruzzo describes various technologies that are increasingly used to monitor and manage…
Read More »Workers at the Starbucks Flagship Reserve Roastery in the Meatpacking district of New York City went on strike late last week, protesting alleged cleanliness issues. Ironically, on that same day, Starbucks announced that another Reserve store in New York City would be opening this month inside the Empire State Building. The new store, comprising 23,000…
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