Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spokesperson refuted a Bloomberg Information story that alleged the governor pushed to exempt bakeries from the state’s quick meals wage regulation to learn a political donor who owns Panera Bread eating places, calling the report “absurd.”
The Bloomberg story revealed this week alleged that Greg Flynn, a billionaire CEO of a restaurant group that function Panera places, lobbied Newsom’s high aides “to rethink whether or not fast-casual chains similar to Panera needs to be labeled as quick meals.”
The story alleged that Service Workers Worldwide Union California State Council agreed to exclude eating places that function bakeries “as a way of successful the governor’s assist for the laws.” The story mentioned “the rationale was the governor’s longstanding relationship with a Panera franchisee.”
“The governor by no means met with Flynn about this invoice and this story is absurd,” mentioned Alex Stack, a spokesperson for Newsom. “Our authorized workforce has reviewed and it seems Panera just isn’t exempt from the regulation.”
Bloomberg didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark in response to the assertion from the governor’s workplace.
The governor’s workplace mentioned the laws was the results of numerous hours of negotiations over two years and Newsom administration officers met with dozens of enterprise homeowners in addition to union representatives.
Panera’s inclusion within the regulation comes down as to whether the corporate produces its bread on website, or brings in dough made at a central facility, mentioned a supply concerned within the discussions.
The regulation says bakeries are exempt from being required to pay the upper wages.
“This exemption applies solely the place the institution produces on the market bread as a stand-alone menu merchandise, and doesn’t apply if the bread is on the market on the market solely as a part of one other menu merchandise,” the regulation states.
Flynn Holdings is a restaurant group and actual property funding firm that claims to be the biggest restaurant franchisee within the nation. The corporate’s portfolio of eating places is huge and contains greater than 444 Applebee’s eating places, over 280 Taco Bell places, over 133 Panera Bread cafes, 367 Arby’s eating places, 937 Pizza Huts and and 194 Wendy’s eating places, in accordance with its web site.
Flynn has been a beneficiant donor to Newsom’s political campaigns, together with contributing $100,000 to combat a failed recall effort in opposition to the governor.
Newsom’s assertion comes after California Senate Republican Chief Brian Jones known as for an investigation into the allegations on Thursday.
“Put merely, marketing campaign contributions mustn’t purchase you carve-outs in laws,” Jones mentioned. “That’s crony capitalism. It’s corrupt and unacceptable.”
Labor unions efficiently pushed Meeting Invoice 257, also referred to as the Quick Meals Accountability and Requirements Restoration Act, by means of the state Legislature in 2022. On the time, bakeries had been exempted from the regulation as unions, the governor’s workplace and different teams sought to outline what eating places the invoice utilized to.
The preliminary fast-food regulation, which Newsom signed final September, created a statewide 10-member fast-food council and regional councils composed of labor and employer representatives to set minimal wage, worker hours and dealing situation requirements in California. Below the regulation, the council may have elevated the minimal wage as much as $22 an hour in 2024 for workers of chains with greater than 100 eating places.
Quick-food corporations rapidly launched a profitable marketing campaign to qualify a referendum on the poll to reverse AB 257, which paused the regulation from taking impact till a statewide vote in November 2024.
Below a brand new settlement reached between fast-food corporations and labor final yr, the referendum shall be faraway from the poll and staff will obtain a pay bump to $20 per hour starting this yr. Bakeries stay exempt from the regulation.
