The New York City Council’s targeted attacks on specific industries continue unabated. After levying onerous new labor law requirements on car washes this past summer, the Council recently turned its attention to the grocery industry, passing a bill dubbed the Grocery Worker Retention Act (the Act). The Act requires that successor grocery employers retain their predecessor’s employees for a period of 90 days following a change in control. The Act is similar to a 2002 NYC law requiring retention of building service workers.

Specifically, the Act, which was passed on January 19, prohibits a successor grocery employer from discharging certain grocery store employees without cause, a term left undefined by the law, during a 90-day transition period following a “change in control.” A “change in control,” in turn, is defined as “any sale, assignment, transfer, contribution or other disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of, or a controlling interest in, including by consolidation, merger or reorganization, any grocery establishment.”
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