Derek Slap

Sen. Slap Urges Stop & Shop to Continue Hazard Pay For Store Employees

WEST HARTFORD – Citing the ongoing nature of the coronavirus pandemic and the mandated public health guidelines still in place across the state, state Senator Derek Slap (D-West Hartford) today joined his Senate Democratic Caucus leadership in urging the Stop & Shop chain of grocery stores to continue the COVID-19 hazard pay it had been providing its frontline workers since April, but which Stop & Shop just cancelled on Independence Day, July 4.

“There are Stop & Shops in West Hartford, Bloomfield, Windsor, Hartford and all over the region that still require patrons and employees to wear face masks and engage in social distancing and to walk one-way down the aisles. Carts are wiped down and they have dividers between customers and checkout clerks. They’re taking all of these precautions for a reason: the coronavirus continues to be a threat in Connecticut. And if it’s still a threat, then their employees should continue to receive what is essentially hazard pay for putting themselves at constant risk so the rest of us can eat,” Sen. Slap said. “Back in late May, Stop & Shop corporate officials asked federal and state governments to declare their employees to be ‘extended first responders’ and ‘emergency personnel’ because of the important work they do. That was the right thing to do. But if the coronavirus is still infecting and killing people in Connecticut, this hazard pay program should continue.”

Senate President Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) today took issue with Stop & Shop’s corporate decision to prematurely end the surplus pay program for its employees, which was implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. They said while transmission of the coronavirus has declined in Connecticut, COVID-19 transmissions continue across the state to this day, and that puts grocery store workers on the pandemic front line.

In April, Stop & Shop implemented a 10 percent “appreciation pay” increase for employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island; that program ended on July 4.

Last year, Sen. Slap joined striking Stop & Shop workers on the picket line when Stop & Shop proposed a new labor contract requiring greater employee contributions to healthcare, changes to Sunday premium pay, and a reduction in pension benefits for new employees.

The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company, headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, has $13 billion in annual sales and employs 170,000 people in more than 400 stores throughout New York, New England and New Jersey. Stop & Shop controls 21% of the grocery store market in both Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Sen. Slap is urging individuals who believe that the Stop & Shop employee appreciation pay program should continue to speak with their local Stop & Shop store manager, or to call Stop & Shop’s corporate customer relations department at 1-800-767-7772, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.