D.C. Carrotmob Promotes Paid Sick Leave

What's the opposite of a boycott? A Carrotmob.

The carrot here is the opposite of the boycott stick like the one that forced the Mott Corporation to back off its planned cuts in worker wages and benefits. It's a reward for companies that are doing something that's socially responsible — and an incentive to others to follow suit. The mob is the collectivity of consumers that gives the incentive force.

The Carrotmob movement started about two years ago in that incubator of so many activist innovations, the San Francisco Bay Area. Carrotmob is now a non-profit that provides sources for local grassroots campaigns. There have already been more than 90 of them in countries around the world.

In the Carrotmob model, businesses are invited to bid for a rush of consumer spending and some good publicity by committing to some specified type of social action. The extra cash is supposed to help pay for it. The theory here is that businesses respond to money-making prospects. So why not give them a financial incentive to do the right thing?

I first learned about the model a couple of months ago when I got an announcement of an upcoming Carrotmob jointly organized by the DC Employment Justice Center and the local affiliate of the Restaurant Opportunities Center in my hometown, Washington, D.C.

This Carrotmob focuses on paid sick leave for restaurant workers, though restaurants could compete on the basis of a broader range of socially responsible practices.

Blogger Taylor Leake has already introduced us to the sick leave issue in the restaurant industry nationwide. Only 12.3 percent of the restaurant workers surveyed in eight major metropolitan areas got any paid sick leave at all. Nearly two-thirds reported that they'd cooked or served food while sick.

Things are somewhat different in the District of Columbia. Hence a very particular type of Carrotmob.

Almost two years ago, the D.C. Council passed a paid sick leave law (pdf). This was something local advocacy organizations had pushed for quite awhile. Many local businesses pushed back — some directly, but most through their trade associations. Big players were the local chapters of the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and the American Hospital Association.

They persuaded the Council to carve out some exceptions. The broadest exempts bartenders and restaurant wait staff who get part of their wages as tips. In a city like D.C. with a huge hospitality industry, this leaves a lot of restaurant workers with no choice but to forfeit wages or unwillingly join the many others who are "serving while sick."

The DC Employment Justice Center and our Restaurant Opportunities Center decided to line up some local restaurant support for a more expansive paid sick leave policy and to raise worker awareness of coverage and restrictions under the current law.

They contacted about 30 restaurant owners and franchisees and invited them to compete for a Carrotmob. Support for paid sick leave for all restaurant workers was the entry card.

Six restaurants responded with "brag sheets" — not bad considering the need to buck the Restaurant Association. The "brag sheets" were posted on the Carrotmob site, and we were invited to vote for the restaurant that seemed to have the best workplace.

The winner was a popular local chain called Teaism. It claims, among other things, to provide 5-7 days of sick leave for its workers. The upper end could be more than the law requires. It also boasts other worker-friendly policies, plus some good environmental practices. And I can personally testify it's got a great selection of teas.

The District's Carrotmob is the first step in a campaign to build support for expanding the District's paid sick leave law to cover all restaurant workers. That will still leave some District workers unprotected — and more with less paid sick leave than they're likely to need. But once the ball gets rolling, who knows how far we can take it?

In the meantime,  if you live in or near Washington, D.C., think about joining the Carrotmob when we chow down at the Penn Quarter Teaism restaurant on November 13.

Graphic credit: DC Employment Justice Center/Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC