Kroger accused of retaliating against the hazard pay mandate by announcing the closure of its stores

Kroger is shutting down three of its grocery stores located in Los Angeles. The American retail company stated that the closures would happen in May.

The announcement of the discontinuation of three Kroger stores came amid the business owners’ concerns over the new hazard pay policy. The mandate is requiring big grocery and pharmacy stores to add $5 per hour to their employees' salaries over a 4-month period to help them deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The affected stores in L.A.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported that Kroger is closing underperforming stores, and these are: Ralphs at Pico Blvd., Ralphs at Slauson Ave., and Sunset Blvd’s Food 4 Less. These three will cease operations on May 15.

It was noted that this is the third time that Kroger announced its plan to shut down some of its stores in select locations. The series of closures came after local governments started to order companies to increase the hourly wages of employees in this time of the pandemic.

In any case, about 289 employees are set to lose their jobs in May, and the company reiterated that they never wanted this to happen. However, the additional operating cost of the stores drove them to make the decision.

"It's never our desire to close a store, but when you factor in the increased costs of operating during Covid-19, consistent financial losses at these three locations, and an extra pay mandate that will cost nearly $20 million over the next 120 days, it becomes impossible to operate these three stores," CNN Business quoted Kroger’s spokesman as saying.

UFCW accused Kroger of retaliating against the hazard pay policy

Now, after revealing its move to shutter a number of stores in various cities, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) accused Kroger of making the decision as a retaliation against the hazard pay mandate. The group said that this is such a cruel attack on essential workers.

“Kroger has made billions in pandemic profits thanks to essential grocery workers in California and across the country,” union’s president Marc Perrone said in a statement. He added that the company’s action is really a cruel attack on workers who are putting their health at risk every day just to ensure that families can have food in their homes.