LA hotel workers' petition for better work conditions, higher pay, moves forward
A petition from Los Angeles hotel workers which seeks to boost pay and improve work conditions has enough signatures to move forward to the next step.
The L.A. City Clerk confirmed Thursday that the "Workplace Security, Workload, Wage and Retention Measures for Hotel Workers" petition has received enough raw signatures to move to the verification stage of the process.
Organizers have to collect at least 61,076 signatures. Those signatures must now be verified, the city clerk said.
Once the signatures are verified, the proposed ordinance will then go before the L.A. City Council, which has three options; The council can either adopt the ordinance, call for a special election or add the ordinance to the next regular city election.
If approved, the ordinance would require hotels to supply their workers with personal security devices to protect them from violent or threatening hotel guests.
Hotels with more than 45 rooms would also have to pay wage premiums when giving workloads that exceed specified limits, and receive written consent from workers who work more than 10 hours a day. Exemptions would be given to hotels that demonstrate economic hardship.
The proposed ordinance would also extend the current minimum wage requirements that applies to hotels with 150 or more rooms to hotels with 60 rooms or more.