A Bill of Rights That Puts Workers Above Corporations

[portlander23]

A Bill of Rights That Puts Workers Above Corporations
SIMON DAVIS-COHEN
In These Times

Workers without a union contract lack any guarantee of due process on the job, let alone a dignified wage. Other than Montana, no state—nor the federal government—requires employers to give a “just cause” for firings. But a movement in Spokane has gotten a first-in-the-nation Worker Bill of Rights on November’s ballot, which, if passed, would act as a kind of union contract for all workers in the city.

The proposition is being championed by Envision Spokane, a labor-community coalition. Envision Worker Rights, a sister political committee of the group, announced that it would introduce a new, worker-focused measure, and gathered more than 2,600 signatures to ensure its place on the city’s ballot.

Spokane’s Worker Bill of Rights would amend the city charter to provide several new on-the-job protections. It would give all Spokane workers rights to equal pay for equal work and to not be wrongfully terminated, as Ralph believes he was. It would also guarantee a “family wage” sufficient to cover basic necessities such as food, housing, utilities and childcare for workers of large employers. When employers run afoul, workers would be entitled to sue.

When faced with efforts to protect workers and communities, corporations have often carped that their own rights are being violated. The International Franchise Association (IFA), for example, sued the City of Seattle over a $15 minimum-wage ordinance passed in June 2014, saying, among other things, that it discriminated against franchises and violated their constitutional right to equal protection. A U.S. appeals court ruled otherwise, and Spokane’s initiative is clearly not afraid of violating so-called corporate rights. The amendment declares that corporations “shall not be deemed to be ‘persons’ ” with legal rights if this interferes with the workers’ rights outlined in the measure. While Spokane is unlikely to reverse longstanding legal precedent on its own, advocates see the Worker Bill of Rights as part of a national movement to challenge corporate personhood.

[ruffburr]

1. Without question-

This needs to be a national policy.

[PatrickforO]

2. Here it is:

Right to a Family Wage. Workers in the City of Spokane have a right to a family wage. Workers employed by an employer with one hundred fifty (150) or more full-time equivalent workers shall be paid, at minimum, a family wage for work performed. The employer requirement to pay a family wage shall not apply to workers in a ninety (90) day or less probationary period, in an internship if enrolled in school, or when enrolled in a Washington state certified apprenticeship program.
Right to Equal Pay. All workers in the City of Spokane have a right to equal pay for equal work. No employer may provide different wage rates or other compensation to workers who are performing jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility because of the worker’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, familial status, race, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, economic class, religion, age or developmental, mental, or physical ability.

Right Not to be Wrongfully Terminated. Workers in the City of Spokane have a right to be free from wrongful termination. Employers with ten (10) or more full-time equivalent workers shall not terminate a worker except for just cause, unless the worker is in a ninety (90) day or less probationary period, is enrolled in a Washington state certified apprenticeship program, or is expressly hired for a particular project and the project has ended. The term “just cause” shall be interpreted in accordance with established, common law principles of collective bargaining and labor relations, as developed by labor arbitration decisions, and an employer seeking to terminate a worker for just cause must demonstrate:
Timely and adequate work performance warnings and opportunities to correct work performance, unless the misconduct of the worker is serious enough to warrant immediate termination, such as criminal activity at work;
1. A fair, objective, and non-discriminatory termination process, where the worker has an opportunity to be heard in opposition to the termination; and
2. The termination is for work performance reasons, unless the employer can demonstrate that a layoff of a worker is necessary for economic hardship.
3. If a court finds a worker has been wrongfully terminated, the affected worker shall receive compensation in the form of back pay, reinstatement, attorney fees, costs, and damages.

Corporate Powers Subordinate To People’s Rights. Corporations that violate, or seek to violate, this section shall not be deemed to be “persons” to the extent that such treatment would interfere with the rights enumerated in this section, nor shall corporations possess any other legal rights that would interfere with the rights enumerated by this section, including standing to challenge this section in court, the power to assert state or federal preemptive laws in an attempt to overturn this section, and the power to assert that the people of this municipality lack the authority to adopt this section.

We'll have to watch very carefully how this goes. It could make a big difference. The first one, 'right to a family wage' is ambiguous. Usually, when we talk about family self-sufficiency wage, it is done by family size. So a single mom with 1 child needs X and a two parent family with 2 kids needs Y. They may have been better off just picking a figure - $15? $17?