Providence, RI — A new Rhode Island law that establishes staffing ratios for self-checkout lines at grocery stores upholds “a priority to protect our workers,” Gov. Dan McKee (D) says.
Signed by McKee on June 18, the Restrictions on Self-Service Checkout Stations Act (S. 2342) requires grocery stores with self-checkout lines to staff at least one worker for every three self-checkouts. Additionally, it ensures that workers assigned to monitor self-checkout lines aren’t expected to fulfill additional duties simultaneously.
“Overreliance on self-service checkouts is frustrating for customers and the workers who are manually covering self-checkout stations on top of all their other job duties,” State Senate President Valarie Lawson (D-East Providence) said in a press release. “We’ve all experienced an issue using a self-service checkout and had to wait for an overtaxed employee to come over to resolve it.”
Domenic Pontarelli, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328, supported the bill. In a separate release, Pontarelli said member grocery workers are “often overburdened with having to monitor too many self-checkouts while shoppers face delays.”
He added, “Staffing ratios fix this issue for everyone.”
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