CALIFORNIA – Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas’s (D-Los Angeles) held a press conference, August 14, on Senate Bill 1446 which, if signed into law, would prohibit grocery and drug stores from providing a self-checkout option unless certain labor conditions are met.

This includes the availability of an open cashier lane.

Smallwood-Cuevas says the proliferation of self-checkout has caused an increase in theft, negative consequences related to staffing levels, customer disrespect and bullying.

According to Smallwood-Cuevas, SB 1446 will protect workers and the public by ensuring safe staffing levels at grocery and drug stores with better supervision of self-checkout machines.

61% of workers say insufficient staff in stores with self-checkout

Researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School found that the deployment of self-checkout machines often leads to understaffed workplaces, resulting in more frequent occurrences of customer disrespect and bullying.

Key statistics include 61% of workers reporting there is always or often insufficient staff to get the work done if they work in stores with self-checkout.

In addition, 25% of workers report feeling bullied by customers in their interactions if they work in workplaces that were less consistently understaffed.

SB 1446 would require that there be no more than two self-service checkout stations monitored by any one employee.

The bill requirements also include:

• At least one manual checkout station is staffed by an employee at the time that a self-service checkout option is made available. 
• The self-checkout employee to be relieved of all other duties.
• An established workplace policy that limits self-service checkouts to purchases of no more than 15 items.
• Prohibiting customers from using self-service checkout to purchase items that require ID verification.

Penalties for a violation of the bill include a penalty of $100 for each day, not to exceed $10,000.

Bill would require workers to police customers

The California Chamber of Commerce, TechNet, and the California Grocers Association oppose the bill saying that there’s no one size fits all approach.

“Further, this bill’s restrictions regarding which items can go through self-checkout will vary store to store, increasing customer frustration and subjecting stores to thousands of dollars in penalties under the June 11, 2024 amendments,” said in a letter dated July 2024.

They go on to say the bill would codify one of the worst situations employees saw during the pandemic – when they were required to police their customers and enforce the law around masking and social distancing.

The bill is co-sponsored by the California Labor Federation and United Food and Commercial Workers.

To read the full bill visit https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1446