Dive Brief:

• A room attendant at Andaz West Hollywood filed a class-action lawsuit against Hyatt alleging that the company violated the West Hollywood Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance, according to a Unite Here release.
• The plaintiff said Hyatt failed to pay room attendants required overpay, keep proper records of workloads and permit a workers’ representative to inspect records. The hotel also failed to provide workers notice of their rights under the ordinance, the lawsuit claims.
• The ordinance, which was signed into law in August 2021, is intended to guarantee workers fair pay when workloads exceed certain limits and offers additional protections against the risk of sexual assault. Similar ordinances are in effect in other municipalities in California, but this is the first lawsuit under West Hollywood’s

Dive Insight:

Though the Andaz workers’ complaints relate primarily to pay, the West Hollywood Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance is intended to offer a variety of protections for workers. The ordinance is one of several in California enacted on the heels of the pandemic to safeguard workers’ rights in a time of upheaval. The West Hollywood law requires the installation of panic buttons meant to reduce the risk of sexual assault, the “right to recall” clause that stipulates workers laid off due to the pandemic have the right to work offered later and an annual six-hour housekeeping training. 

As for pay, the ordinance states hotel employers can’t require a room attendant to clean rooms spanning a total of 4,000 square feet of floor space in any eight-hour workday unless the employer pays twice the hourly rate for each hour worked in the day.

The plaintiff of the lawsuit, Morena Hernandez, has worked at the Andaz as a room attendant for more than 25 years. 

“My coworkers and I fought hard for this ordinance,” said Hernandez in a release from the labor union Unite Here, which represents her and over 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona. 

“I remember staying at West Hollywood City Hall until the City Council passed this law at three in the morning, and we cried tears of joy. But we weren’t done fighting for our rights,” Hernandez added. “Now, our goal is for Hyatt and other West Hollywood hotels to respect the law — and respect us as workers.” 

Municipal governments in the region have paid attention to hospitality workers’ rights in recent months and years. Similar hotel worker protection ordinances have passed in Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Monica, Emeryville, Glendale, Long Beach and Irvine. And in April, L.A. City Council members introduced a motion to raise the minimum wage for the city’s hospitality and tourism workers to $25. 

Workers at Andaz West Hollywood are being represented by Lauren Teukolsky of Teukolsky Law. Hyatt did not respond to Hotel Dive’s request for comment.