Connecticut’s Labor Committee held a public hearing Tuesday in which legislators heard testimony on a bill which would mandate a ratio of grocery store employees to self-checkout stations in an effort to preserve grocery clerk jobs.

The proposed bill stipulates that grocery stores across the state retain one staff member to monitor every two self-checkout stations. It would also prevent stores from installing more than eight self-checkout stations. It would also allow employees or customers to file complaints with the State’s Labor Commissioner if they believe any grocery store is in violation of the bill’s measures.

While many labor organizers and lawmakers spoke in support of the bill, saying it would help protect employment, reduce theft, and improve customers’ and staff’s experience, others criticized what they thought was an example of government overreach that could increase costs for consumers.

Jake Serafini, an organizer for UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers) Local 371, was the first union organizer to speak in favor of the bill. Serafini said that self-checkout “can be useful in limited circumstances,” but that its rapid expansion has “come at a cost to workers and customers alike.” Serafini said that limiting self-checkout is “important for protecting jobs and maintaining safe, efficient stores.”

“Cashier positions serve as important entry-level jobs for young workers, parents returning to the workforce, and people seeking steady employment in their communities,” said Serafini. “Maintaining a reasonable balance between staffed lanes and self-checkout stations ensures supermarkets continue to provide meaningful job opportunities.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest data, there are approximately 32,110 cashiers in the state of Connecticut, which accounts for a little under 2% of the state’s workforce. Nationwide, the BLS predicts a 10% decrease in the occupation by 2034.

Serafini also claimed that “most shoppers” prefer human cashiers, that self-checkout machines often malfunction or create confusion and frustration among customers and the staff required to help them, and that limiting self-checkout could reduce theft and improve safety.

“Self-checkout can be useful in moderation, but it should not replace the workers who keep supermarkets running,” said Serafini.

Chair of the Labor Committee, Senator Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) said that she, too, finds the “human experience” provided by cashiers to be “very beneficial,” and asked Serafini to elaborate on how big an issue he believes self-checkout theft to be. Serafini said he didn’t have an exact number, but that “having worked in the supermarkets, it’s still pretty high.”

“It’s still fairly easy for somebody to put in the wrong PLU number, or a different SKU, and be able to walk out with a much higher cost item,” said Serafini. “It’s also still fairly easy in some of the less modified stores — that don’t have all those camera systems in place — to make it so you’re kind of skimming over the scan and just putting it in your basket to take out the door.”

Rep. Joseph Canino (R-Torrington) noted that most stores have policies against directly confronting suspected thieves and asked Serafini how mandating a higher staff-to-self-checkout lane ratio would reduce theft. Serafini responded by saying that limiting the number of self-checkout lanes would give monitoring staff “less to kind of keep an eye on,” and would also allow stores to retain less staff for that purpose, otherwise they might run the risk of being overwhelmed.

Canino asked Serafini whether or not the bill would increase labor costs, leading to increased grocery bills, a sentiment shared by other Republican lawmakers. Serafini said it’s “hard to say” but that he thought any increase in grocery costs would be hardly noticeable, and that he didn’t think adding an “additional person or two” at minimum wage would “really impact costs.”

“I think everything right now is expensive in general,” said Serafini. “Not to sound crass, I’m not sure if people would notice, because things continue to go up anyway.”

Serafini also believed that limiting machines wouldn’t necessitate additional hiring, but would just require stores to manage “based on who’s already on staff.” Keri Hoehne, Secretary Treasurer of the UFCW Local 371, said the same.

“This bill does not mandate the supermarket employees any additional folks,” said Hoehne. “It’s only saying that if you’re going to bring robots in, that you need to be able to have staffing so that customers have the opportunity to go to a human, ask questions, interact.”

Hoehne said that Connecticut retailers lost $895 million to shoplifters in 2022, and that while many retailers view it as a worthwhile tradeoff for lowering labor costs, the state shouldn’t, as it represented a $56.8 million loss in sales tax revenue.

“As a taxpayer, I wouldn’t want our state to make up that shortfall by cutting back on the state workforce or by cutting back on our contributions to our cities and our towns,” said Hoehne.

Hoehne argued that she has “never seen prices go down when we stopped having humans run things,” and said that the more jobs are available for people, the less demand people will have on the state’s social safety net, and the more demand there will be in consumer markets.

“It’s also about, really, just keeping good jobs,” said Hoehne. “We’re talking so much about AI, but at some point, we need people to be able to work so that they can afford to buy the things we’re trying to sell them.”

Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco (R-Wolcott) said she understood the proponents’ concerns, but that she opposed the bill based on her belief that it isn’t the role of government to “tell a private business how many people they should staff when it comes to self-checkouts.”

“To me, it’s un-American, to be quite honest with you,” said Mastrofrancesco. “Who are we, to tell a business like Stop and Shop, you’ve got to have so many people manning your self-checkout?”

Mastrofrancesco argued that there are already employees at grocery stores meant to check the receipts of self-checkout shoppers before they leave, and that if “they’re supposed to be checking the receipts and they’re not, you can’t regulate behavior.” Mastrofrancesco also argued that customers already have the right to choose whether or not they want to use self-checkout, and that if they don’t like it, they can choose not to use it or go to stores that don’t offer it.

“If somebody doesn’t like that and they want to deal with a real person, then they don’t shop there anymore, and I believe that it would take care of itself” said Mastrofrancesco.

Mastrofrancesco viewed the bill as the latest development in an increasingly over-regulated business environment.

“I just don’t think we have a right to regulate that for these small businesses,” said Mastrofrancesco. “The more we continue to do this, the more we continue to go down this path of putting onerous regulations on businesses, the more our young people that are trying to find jobs are going to suffer.”

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