Drafter
Clerk 05/06/2025
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to grocery businesses; establishing requirements for grocery businesses operating in the unincorporated area of King County and utilizing self-service checkout stations; adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 12.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. King County strives to be an equitable and inclusive place and strives to empower all residents to participate in the economic life of the county. A key aspect of participation in economic life is the ability to purchase food and consumer goods.
B. In recent years, grocery businesses have moved toward self-service checkout stations.
C. However, studies published by the journal Universal Access in the Information Society in August 2023 and the University of Waterloo in May 2024, individuals with disabilities face challenges utilizing self-service checkout stations without assistance.
D. Furthermore, in August 2024, researchers from the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School released a report, "Please Wait, Help is on the Way: Self-Checkout, Understaffing, and Customer Incivility in the Service Sector", which found that workers were more likely to report understaffing in stores deploying self-service checkout stations and workers in understaffed settings experienced more bullying than those in better-staffed settings.
E. On January 30, 2025, the Washington state Legislature initiated the first reading of House Bill 1739, regulating the use of self-service checkout stations by requiring grocery establishments that utilize self-service checkout stations to provide employee oversight, setting limitations on the number of products that can be purchased, per transaction, and amending RCW 49.85.015, 49.85.045, and 49.85.050.
F. On February 12, 2025, the Washington state Legislature held a public hearing on House Bill 1739 in the House Committee on Labor & Workplace Standards.
G. Unless and until House Bill 1739 or similar legislation becomes state law, there is a need to establish local requirements for grocery businesses that utilize self-service checkout stations to address accessibility and worker experience concerns.
SECTION 2. Sections 3 through 7 of this ordinance should constitute a new chapter in K.C.C. Title 12.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 3. The definitions in this section apply throughout this ordinance unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
A. "Adverse action" means reducing compensation, garnishing gratuities, denying a job or promotion, demoting, terminating, failing to rehire after a seasonal interruption of work, threatening, penalizing, retaliating, engaging in unfair immigration-related practices, filing a false report with a government agency or otherwise discriminating against any person for any reason.
B. "Aggrieved party" means an employee or other person who suffers tangible or intangible harm due to an employer or other person's violation of this ordinance.
C. "Consumer goods" means items bought or acquired by individuals for personal, family, or household consumption or use.
D. "Director" means the director of the department of local services or designee.
E.1. "Grocery business" means a retail store operation that is either:
a. over ten thousand square feet in size and that is primarily engaged in the retail sale of groceries for offsite consumption, including but not limited to the sale of fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products, canned and frozen foods, dry foods, beverages, baked foods, or prepared foods. Other household supplies or other products shall be secondary to the primary purpose of groceries sales; or
b. over eighty-five thousand square feet and with thirty percent or more of its sales floor area dedicated to the retail sale of groceries, including but not limited to the sale of fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products, canned and frozen foods, dry foods, beverages, baked foods, or prepared foods.
2. "Grocery business" does not include farmers' markets or farm stands.
F. "Grocery employee" means a person employed by a grocery employer and working at a grocery business.
G.1. "Grocery employers" are those businesses that:
a. employ at least one grocery employee who works at a grocery business located in unincorporated King County; and
b. Employ five hundred or more employees worldwide regardless of where those employees are employed, including but not limited to chains, integrated enterprises or franchises associated with a franchisor or network of franchises that employ five hundred or more employees in aggregate.
2. To determine the number of employees for the current calendar year for the purposes of this section:
a. The calculation is based upon the average number of employees who worked per calendar week during the preceding calendar year for any and all weeks during which at least one employee worked for the grocery employer. For employers that did not have any employees during the preceding calendar year, the number of employees for the current calendar year is calculated based upon the average number of employees who worked during the first ninety calendar days of the current year in which the grocery employer has engaged in the grocery business; or
b. All employees shall be counted, including, but not limited to:
(1) grocery employees;
(2) employees who are not grocery employees;
(3) employees who worked outside King County;
(4) employees who worked in incorporated and unincorporated areas of King County; and
(5) employees who worked in full-time employment, part-time employment, joint employment, temporary employment or through the services of a temporary services or staffing agency or similar entity.
3.a. Business entities otherwise treated separately shall be, for the purposes of this ordinance, considered as:
(1) an integrated enterprise; and
(2) a single employer when one entity controls the operation of the other entity.
b. The factors to consider in determining the existence of a single enterprise may include, but are not limited to:
(1) degree of interrelation between the operations of multiple entities;
(2) degree to which the entities share common management;
(3) centralized control of labor relations;
(4) degree of common ownership or financial control over the entities; and
(5) use of a common brand, trade, business or operating name.
H. "Manual checkout station" means a station that is not a self-service checkout station and at which an employee provides human assistance to customers with scanning, bagging, or accepting payment for the customer's purchases.
I. "Self-service checkout station" is a system or machine that allows customers to scan and pay for consumer goods without the assistance of a grocery employee.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 4.
A. Any grocery business located in unincorporated King County that provides one or more self-service checkout stations for customers, except as otherwise provided in subsection B. of this section, must comply with the following requirements:
1. Self-checkout stations shall provide operational instructions in English and in the languages identified in K.C.C. 2.16.136;
2. For every three self-checkout stations available there must be at least one grocery employee stationed to monitor the self-checkout area at all times;
3. For every three self-checkout stations available, there must be at least one manual checkout station staffed by a grocery employee to assist and process customer transactions; and
4. Within thirty days of the effective date of this ordinance, grocery employers shall display a written notice of rights established by this ordinance in a conspicuous and accessible place at all its grocery businesses. Grocery employers shall display the notice of rights at its grocery businesses with the maximum number of consumer goods that are allowed to be purchased at self-service checkout stations.
B. The notice of rights shall provide information on:
1. Include that employee has a right to make inquiries about the rights protected under ordinance;
2. Right to inform person’s employer, the person’s legal counsel, a union or similar organization or any other person about an alleged violation of this ordinance;
3. Right to refuse to participate in any activity that would result in a violation of city, state, or federal law;
4. Right to oppose any policy, practice, or act that is unlawful under this ordinance;
5. Right to be protected from retaliation for exercising in good faith the rights protected by this ordinance; and
6. Right to bring a civil action for a violation of this ordinance or retaliation against a grocery employee or other person for asserting a violation of this chapter.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 5.
A. A grocery employer shall not interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any rights protected under this chapter by a grocery employee. A grocery employer shall not take any adverse action against a grocery employee because the employee has exercised in good faith the rights under this chapter. The rights shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. A grocery employee or representative for the grocery employee, such as a collective bargaining representative or nonprofit corporation, has the right to file a complaint of noncompliance with the director, grocery employer, legal counsel, or any other person about an employer's alleged violation of this chapter;
2. A grocery employee has the right to cooperate in any investigation or court proceedings of alleged violations of this chapter; and
3. A grocery employee has the right to inform other employees of the rights protected under this chapter.
B. For the purposes of this section, "adverse action against an employee" includes, but is not limited to, actions:
1. Relating to an employee's employment including pay, work hours, responsibilities, or other material change in the terms and conditions of employment;
2. Relating to an employee's immigration or citizenship status unless such an action is required by law; and
3. Dissuading an employee from exercising any right afforded by this chapter.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 6.
A. The director is authorized to enforce and implement this chapter. To address requirement violations under sections 4 and 5 of this ordinance and in accordance with subsection B. of this section, the director shall:
1. Adopt public and administrative rules in accordance with this chapter establishing standards and procedures for effectively carrying out this chapter;
2. Determine when and how to determine whether a violation of section 4 of this ordinance has occurred and when and how any notice and opportunity to cure a violation of this law should be afforded; and
3. Determine and impose appropriate sanctions or remedies, or both, and procedures for administrative review, for violation of this chapter.
B. Upon receipt of a complaint received in accordance with sections 4 and 5 of this ordinance or as otherwise provided for in any public and administrative rules adopted in subsection A. of this section:
1. The director shall determine whether a violation of this chapter has occurred and notify the grocery business by certified U.S. mail of the violation. The grocery business shall have thirty calendar days from the date of receipt of the notification to demonstrate that the violation has been cured;
2. If the grocery business does not demonstrate that it has cured the violation within thirty days, then section 7 of this ordinance shall apply, and the grocery business shall be subject to a one-thousand-dollar penalty per day for each day after the thirtieth calendar day following the receipt of notification until the grocery business demonstrates that the violation has been cured;
3. If the grocery business cures the complaint within thirty days, then section 7 of this ordinance shall not apply, and no penalty may be assessed.
4. If the director determines that a grocery business has more than one violation within a one year period beginning on the date of the most recent prior notification, section 7 of this ordinance shall apply, but if the grocery business demonstrates within fourteen calendar days of the most recent that the violation has been cured, then no penalty shall be assessed.
NEW SECTION. SECTION 7.
A. The director, an aggrieved grocery employee, or representative of the grocery employee, such as a collective bargaining representative or a nonprofit corporation, may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against a grocery employer for violating section 4 or 5 of this ordinance this chapter and, upon prevailing, may be awarded reasonable attorneys' fees and costs and such legal or equitable relief as is appropriate to remedy, which shall include, but not be limited to, the payment of any lost wages and damages plus interest.
B. Before filing a civil action against an employer for violating this ordinance, an aggrieved employee or the employee's representative shall give notice by certified U.S. mail with return receipt requested or a comparable method to the employer demanding that the employer comply with sections 4 and 5 of this ordinance. An employer's refusal to accept or read the letter is not a failure to send the letter. If the employer fails to comply within thirty days of the notice, then the director, aggrieved employee or employee's representative may file a civil action as specified in subsection A. of this section.
C. For the purposes of this section, an aggrieved employee means an employee who claims to have been injured by an employer's violation of this chapter.