SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) – A trade group has dropped its challenge of a Seattle ordinance that required grocery stores to increase pay for their workers by $4 per hour.
In August, the Northwest Grocery Association notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that it was dismissing its case against the City, six months after a district judge ruled for Seattle on the issue.
NGA’s decision was made as the City delayed discussing the removal of the pay raise.
NGA complained the hazard pay order was unconstitutional because it is preempted by federal law regulating collective bargaining and unfair labor practices.
Judge John Coughenour did not buy the argument that the ordinance was preempted by the National Labor Relations Act, dismissing the suit in March.
“(T)he Supreme Court has held the NLRA does not preempt ‘minimum labor standards’ which do not affect the process of collective bargaining but rather set the minimum terms that form the backdrop of their bargaining processes,” Coughenour wrote.
“The mere fact that a state law affects – and in effect, grants to employees – something for which they otherwise could have bargained does not give rise to NLRA preemption.”
The case is one of several filed in federal courts that challenge local ordinances. Seattle said it is a valid exercise of its police powers, which allow regulation of working conditions in the city.
“Providing hazard pay to grocery store employees compensates employees for their increased risk of infection, improves retention of these employees, ensures that they can better afford the resources they need to stay healthy and prevent transmission, and helps ensure continued community access to food and other essential goods,” the City’s motion to dismiss argued.