A 2005 Los Angeles law that required new owners of existing grocery stores keep that store’s employees for at least 90 days has been revived. The California Supreme Court ruled 6 to 1 that the ordinance does not take the place of state or federal law nor does it violate the constitutional rights of the new owners. This law is one of several others in the state that requires new owners to keep existing employees for a defined period of time.
Justice Elizabeth A. Grimes dissented the ruling, writing that the ordinance does in fact interfere with federal labor laws. In she dissent, she called on the U.S. Supreme Court to examine the case.
"The city's ordinance requires a new grocery employer ... to function during the important initial period of its operations with a work force it deems, for entirely legitimate reasons, unsuitable for its planned operations," Grimes wrote in her dissent.
Read more about the new ordinance in the LA Times.
