Fast food chains in NYC can't fire you without a good reason

If you work in a nonsupervisory job at a fast food chain with 30 or more locations nationwide, the protection starts after probation, which can last no more than 30 days. Your boss can’t fire you or cut the hours in your regular schedule by more than 15% from its highest level in the prior year without just cause or a documented economic reason. For performance or misconduct, just cause means you didn’t do the job satisfactorily or you broke a rule in a way that materially hurt the business. Except in egregious cases, your employer has to use progressive discipline and give you a chance to improve first. Economic layoffs must happen in reverse seniority order. Within five days of a firing, hours cut, or layoff, the employer must explain the reason in writing.

You don’t need to apply. If you’re fired or lose hours illegally, you can go to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. It can win you back pay, restored hours, or your job back. From 2021 through 2024, the department recovered more than $185,900 in restitution and penalties for 48 workers. The city comptroller found that fast food jobs and restaurants kept growing after the law took effect.

Council Member Brad Lander introduced the bill in February 2019. Council Member Adrienne Adams carried a companion bill on layoffs. The Council passed both in December 2020, and Mayor Bill de Blasio signed them on January 5, 2021. Restaurant industry groups sued to stop the law. A federal judge upheld it in 2022, and the Second Circuit appeals court upheld it again in January 2024.