The food chain owned by Kroger Quality Food Centers will close two stores in Seattle next month due in part to a new law that imposes “payment risk” for employees of the first grocery store who continued to work during coronavirus pandemic.
Two QFC stores will close on April 24, a decision “accelerated by a new Seattle City Council mandate requiring certain employers to pay additional payments to some, but not all, front-line workers in the city,” QFC said Tuesday. a statement.
The decision drew a reprimand from a board member, who unanimously approved a law requiring larger food chains to temporarily increase workers’ wages by $ 4 an hour.
“Food workers have had to cover emergency shifts, take on additional responsibilities, and are five times more likely to hire COVID,” said Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda. “These workers should not be pawns in a game of chess.”
The law, which went into effect last week, draws legal challenges from the Northwest Grocery Association and the Washington Food Industry Association. A similar legal battle is taking place in California, where the California Grocers Association is challenging risk payment orders in Oakland, Montebello and Long Beach.
The local union United Food and Commercial Workers called Kroger’s plan to close the two QFC stores “a transparent attempt to intimidate other local governments into enacting ordinances that would provide risky payments for front-line grocery store workers.”
Taking a different approach, trader Joe responded to a series of orders by temporary increase in payment with $ 4 per hour for its workers nationwide, but canceling its traditional mid-year increases. Similarly, PCC Community Markets also extended the $ 4 hourly wage increase to nearly 1,500 employees in its 15 locations beyond the eight Seattle stores affected by the mandate.
Kroger earlier this month said he would close a Ralphs and a Food 4 Less in Long Beach, California, after the city approved an ordinance on the payment of risks that the food chain called “wrong.”
The decision to end the “hero’s payment”
Kroger ended what he called last spring “Pay the hero” a $ 2-per-hour bonus that the company briefly offered to more than 500,000 workers beginning in April 2020. Instead, the company went on to pay $ 130 million in bonuses, with full-time workers receiving $ 400 million and those full-time receiving $ 200.
Kroger made record gains during the pandemic as more Americans chose to stay home, boosting sales of food and other food. The company posted operating profits of more than $ 2.9 billion by the third quarter of 2020, making an additional gain of $ 1.2 billion compared to a year ago.
Kroger is redirecting some of that money to investors, with a $ 1 billion buyback announced in September. On February 5, the company announced a $ 147 million dividend payment and said it expects to increase its dividend over time.