Senate Bill No. 438 aims to regulate self-checkout stations in grocery stores by establishing specific requirements for their operation. The bill mandates that for every two self-checkout stations, there must be at least one manual checkout station and one employee monitoring the self-checkout stations. Additionally, employees assigned to monitor these stations cannot be assigned other duties, and grocery stores are prohibited from having more than eight self-checkout stations at any location. If a grocery store fails to correct any violations within 30 days of being notified by the Labor Commissioner, it may incur civil penalties equivalent to a full day’s wages of the highest-paid retail clerk for each day the violation persists.

The bill also protects employees and customers from retaliation for filing complaints regarding violations, allowing them to pursue civil action in Superior Court for damages and injunctive relief. Furthermore, the Labor Commissioner is granted the authority to adopt regulations to implement the bill's provisions. The effective date for these regulations is set for October 1, 2026. Notably, the bill includes the insertion of new definitions for "grocery store," "groceries," "manual checkout station," and "self-checkout station," while deleting the term "alleged" for accuracy in the context of complaints.