McDonald’s OKs Higher Pay at LAX

Under pressure from city officials to respond to complaints alleging that they violated labor laws, four McDonald’s restaurants at Los Angeles International Airport have agreed to amend their concession contracts.

McDonald’s representatives told the City Council’s Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday that the restaurants would voluntarily pay their workers the city’s living wage and comply with LAX’s new contractor responsibility program, both of which were enacted after the current contracts were signed.

Restaurant representatives said they would work to amend existing contracts with the city agency that operates the airport to pay the living wage--$7.99 an hour with benefits and $9.24 an hour without benefits. The company is not required to pay the city’s living wage because its contract with the airport agency predates the law’s implementation in 1997.

McDonald’s hopes to have the living wage in place at its airport franchises by Sept. 1, said Jeanne Hardemion-Kemp, the company’s community affairs manager in Southern California.

After a hearing, the commerce committee recommended that the Airport Commission pursue the changes, but that the contract extension shouldn’t be formalized until after a six-month trial period.

“Before I would be interested in considering a contract extension, I would like to see how things work out with this contract amendment in place,” Councilwoman Ruth Galanter said. The City Council would review any contract extension granted to McDonald’s by the Airport Commission.

The McDonald’s franchises at LAX had been negotiating a three-year contract extension with the airport agency. The current contract expires in 2005. But a nonprofit worker advocacy group asked that the extension be denied, alleging that McDonald’s employees at LAX suffer dangerous working conditions and intimidation by managers.

The company has franchises in terminals 1, 5 and 7 and in the Bradley International Terminal.