Glendale, California, Enacts Hotel Worker Protections

Author: Michael Cardman, XpertHR Legal Editor

July 28, 2022

Glendale, California, a city on the outskirts of Los Angeles, is the latest locality to provide special employment protections for hotel workers.

It joins Los Angeles (effective August 12), New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and several other localities that have enacted hotel worker ordinances in recent years.

Glendale's Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance, which takes effect today, requires covered hotel employers to:

  • Protect covered hotel workers from violent or threatening conduct by, among other things:
    • Providing them with personal security devices (e.g. panic buttons) at no cost and training them on how to use them;
    • Allowing them to stop work and leave the immediate danger area to await help; and
    • Prohibiting adverse employment actions against them for activating their personal security devices or for stopping work;
  • Limit the amount of space workers are required to clean unless they are paid overtime;
  • Not require or permit workers to work more than 10 hours in a workday unless they consent in writing to do so; and
  • Pay workers at least the minimum wage paid to hotel workers in Los Angeles (effective September 26, 2022).