Government Obligations Related to Laundromat Employees are Increasing

If you think the only dark sign in the future of Laundromat management is deeply increasing of minimum labor rates, you’d be mistaken. The entry level positions, often used for our business employees, fails to provide a “living wage” for employees in the minds of many elected politicians in State and Federal departments and legislatures. Increased minimum wages, however, is only one of many governmental regulations and laws that are being proposed and enacted in many States across our country.

Sick leave, increased days designated as legal holidays and more regulations are already here in some States. There is a fairly recent California law related to training involving sexual harassment which I will outline below. It applies to all businesses, including Laundromats, if you have five employees and contractors, or combination thereof, and is currently the law in California.

What is needed to qualify for these required training exercises. If you have five workers, including yourself, you have to perform this ongoing training. How easy it is to be in the required group? You’re the manager (1), your part time repairman (1) and three part time cleaning/attendants (3), make it necessary to comply. You need to do the training, record attendance and maintain records. Looks like many single store Laundromats, and virtually all multiple store operators are in for more work.

Key Points

• Employers with at least five employees must provide: (1) Two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to all supervisory employees; (2) One hour of sexual harassment prevention training to all non-supervisory employees.

• Part-time and temporary employees, plus independent contractors count toward the minimum employee count of five employees.

• Must be done by January 1, 2020.

• Training must occur within six months of the employee starting the position (and every two years thereafter).

• Sexual harassment prevention training may be conducted individually or as a group.

• Sexual harassment prevention training may be in conjunction with other training and may be given in shorter time segments, as long as the two-hour requirement for supervisory employees and the one-hour requirement for non-supervisory employees is met.

Just because you haven’t had a notice of enforcement, it doesn’t mean this is not a serious requirement. It will likely surface for a Laundromat owner if and when there is an incident in your business.

Although it appears to be a law created in response to some notable sexual harassment incidents involving noted Hollywood producers and their workers, the law addresses the belief that sexual harassment is widespread throughout the workforce in our country. Regardless of your opinion, it is now a legal requirement, and attention should be paid to ensure you’re abiding by all labor related aspects of business operation.

It is likely this will be relevant when unhappy workers bring labor related lawsuits against the owners of a Laundromat. Overtime, too many hours worked in a week, failure to pay overtime, failure to pay double time after eight hours in a day, and failure to have records as to when employees on your premises and when they are not.

New store owners should be aware that the purchase of an ongoing businesses does not relieve the buyer from the liability of previous owners. This is why so many buyers opt for an “asset purchase” agreement and don’t buy the ongoing business.

In years past, the Laundromat business experienced fewer needs to become fully aware of all the legal obligations and accommodations needed for operating a small business related to employees and workers. The government has since moved into the increasing role of protecting and providing for the lower income workers and with it placed an increased burden on entities unable to afford or even understand all the requirements normally handled by larger business entities through their human resource departments. Be aware, as you contemplate your investment in this industry, that along with the money comes legal and moral obligations.