Covered Establishments

For purposes of this law, a “grocery establishment” is a retail store operating in California that meets both of the following requirements:2

• The retail store sells primarily household foodstuffs for offsite consumption, including, but not limited to, the sale of fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products, canned foods, dry foods, beverages, baked foods, or prepared foods.
• The sale of any other household supplies or other products by the retail store is secondary to the primary purpose of food sales.

A “pharmacy establishment” is a pharmacy as defined in California Business and Professions Code Section 4037 that meets the following requirements:

• The pharmacy is a “chain community pharmacy” or an “independent community pharmacy” as defined in Business and Professions Code Section 4001.
• The pharmacy is open to the public.
• The pharmacy is not owned by a health facility as defined in Health and Safety Code Section 1250.
• The pharmacy is not a part of a “fully integrated delivery system,” as defined.3

Notice Requirements

Covered establishments that intend to close and cease operations must, no later than 45 days before closure, provide written notice of the closure to the following:4

• The employees of the covered establishment affected by the closure and their authorized representatives if the covered establishment employs more than five employees.
• If the covered establishment employs five or fewer employees, it must provide notice of closure to its employees no later than 30 days before it closes.
• The Employment Development Department.
• The State Department of Social Services.
• The local workforce development board of any city and county government within which the closure occurs.
• The chief elected official of each city and county government within which the closure occurs.
• The California State Board of Pharmacy, if the covered establishment is a pharmacy establishment.

Pharmacies owned by a person or entity who owns 15 or fewer pharmacies nationwide and is not a covered establishment under the California WARN Act do not have to provide notice to the following:5

• The Employment Development Department.
• The State Department of Social Services.
• The local workforce development board of any city and county government within which the closure occurs.
• The chief elected official of each city and county government within which the establishment is located.

Additionally, grocery establishments Pharmacies owned by a person or entity who owns 15 or fewer pharmacies nationwide and is not a covered establishment under the California WARN Act do not have to provide notice to the following:6

• The Employment Development Department.
• The local workforce development board of any city and county government within which the closure occurs.
• The chief elected official of each city and county government within which the establishment is located.

Covered employers should note that when they are covered by Cal/WARN and they send out timely WARN notices 60 days prior to a closure, the WARN notice only partially complies with the grocery and pharmacy closure law. Employers must take steps to ensure they comply with both laws.7

To read more about federal and state WARN laws, please see ”Events That Trigger the WARN Act,” above.

In addition to providing written notice to various parties, covered establishments must also post a written notice of the closure in a conspicuous location at the entrance to the covered establishment’s premises that includes the planned closure date of the covered establishment and must take reasonable steps to give notice to consumers/patients of the closure in a form the establishment regularly uses to communicate or advertise to consumers.8

Except as otherwise required under Cal/WARN or any other provision of the law, covered establishments do not need to provide notice when a closure is:

• Necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war.
• Caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time that notice would have been required.9

Enforcement and Penalties

An employer that violates this section will be subject to a civil penalty up to $10,000 for each closure, which may be assessed and collected in a civil action brought by any person injured by the violation or in a civil action brought by the California Attorney General, a district attorney, or a city attorney where the covered establishment was located.10

An employee that does not receive written notice by a covered employer is entitled to recover in a civil action an additional sum payable as liquidated damages in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100) per employee for each day the rights of an employee under this section are violated.

If an employer violates the grocery store and pharmacy closure notice law and Cal/WARN with the same violation, employees may only seek damages or penalties under one law, not both.11

1. Bus. and Prof. code sec. 22949.92.1