Kroger Closing Some Ralphs Stores Due to Hazard Pay Mandate

[Eugene]

Source: NBC Los Angeles

Kroger Closing Some Ralphs Stores Due to Hazard Pay Mandate

Cincinnati-based Kroger, which owns the chain, blames it on LA’s COVID-19 “hazard pay” mandate. Five extra bucks an hour for employees. The city council passed the ordinance a few weeks ago.

By Gordon Tokumatsu • Published March 25, 2021 • Updated on March 25, 2021 at 7:10 pm

Kroger is closing at least two of their Ralphs grocery stores in Los Angeles in May due to the city's "hazard pay" mandate.

This is an unpleasant surprise for many customers.

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The Pico-Robertson Ralphs will shut its doors on May 15th and a second LA Ralphs and a Food-4-Less will also close.

Cincinnati-based Kroger, which owns the chain, blames it on LA’s COVID-19 “hazard pay” mandate. Five extra bucks an hour for employees. The city council passed the ordinance a few weeks ago.

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Read more: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/kroger-closing-some-ralphs-stores-due-to-hazard-pay-mandate/2559589/

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Source: The Guardian

‘They don’t care’: US supermarket chain shutters stores after hazard pay rules

Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, lays off employees after local ordinance on hazard pay passed in Los Angeles

Michael Sainato
Fri 26 Mar 2021 09.00 GMT

Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US which makes hundred of millions of dollars in profits, is shutting down grocery stores and laying off scores of employees in response to local hazard pay rules for essential workers even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.

Maria Hernandez has worked at Ralphs grocery stores for 25 years before she recently found out her store would be shutting down. She’s worked through the pandemic and caught the coronavirus in May 2020. She still experiences lingering, long-term effects from it, and has dealt with panic attacks and anxiety from the stress and pressures placed on essential workers.

“Why are they punishing us?” said Hernandez. “If it weren’t for us they couldn’t run the stores. As a person we have value. As workers we have value. They don’t seem to care about you as a human being. They don’t care.”

In response to a local ordinance passed by the Los Angeles city council on 3 March to grant frontline workers at large employers a $5-an-hour hazard pay increase for 120 days, Kroger announced plans to shut down three grocery stores in the city, eliminating more than 250 jobs.

Kroger claimed the decision to shut down a Food4Less location and two Ralphs stores was due to underperformance at the locations.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/26/krogers-us-supermarket-chain-stores-closed-layoffs