Standing behind a McDonald’s counter in Baton Rouge on Wednesday morning, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law he says will help protect restaurant workers from attacks.
House Bill 1238 by state Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, enhances criminal penalties for assault and simple battery when those crimes are committed against employees in food and retail establishments.
“This is one of those bills that you’d think we wouldn’t need in society,” the governor said. “These are people that are actually out there trying to serve the public, trying to get you a meal, trying to just get you on your way.”
In Louisiana, people convicted of simple battery face fines of up to $1,000 and prison sentences of up to six months, and those convicted of simple assault face fines of up to $200 and prison sentences of up to 90 days.
HB1238, which became Act 342 with Landry’s signature, stiffens those penalties. When the victim of a simple battery is a restaurant or retail employee, the perpetrator could have to pay up to $2,000 or spend up to two years in prison. The maximum penalties for assaults against such employees would increase to fines of $1,000 and six months behind bars.
Under Louisiana law, battery is the “intentional use of force or violence” against someone, while assault is attempted battery.
McMakin, who joined Landry for a press conference at the McDonald’s on Dawnedale Avenue, said the state passed laws to protect healthcare workers from workplace violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it was time “to do the same thing for the people that are behind the counter,” he said.
“Too many times we see customers come into a restaurant, and then act like fools,” he said. Act 342 “will provide our police with extra resources to say, ‘Not anymore in Baton Rouge and in Louisiana are you going to mess with our hardworking people that are behind the counters.’”
The legislation comes after a Baton Rouge couple in March was accused of shooting a restaurant owner over a mistake in their food order.
The change is the latest of a series in laws passed under Landry that toughen criminal penalties. After he took office in 2024, he convened a special legislative session to pass a set of bills that all but eliminated parole opportunities for prisoners.
Since then, other bills have made it easier for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for people accused of murder and lengthened maximum sentences for various crimes, such as strangulation of a dating partner and some sex offenses.