For more information on the HWPO you may visit the city's website, or you may contact the City Manager's Office at 1-714-765-5162.

Coverage and Eligibility

A covered hotel employer under the HWPO is any person who owns, controls or operates a hotel in the city and includes any person or contractor who, in a managerial, supervisory or confidential capacity, employs hotel workers to provide services at the hotel in conjunction with the hotel's purpose.1

A “hotel” is any establishment that provides temporary lodging for payment in the form of overnight accommodations in guest rooms to transient patrons for periods of 30 consecutive days or fewer. Types of hotels include:

• Hotels.
• Motor lodges.
• Motels.
• Apartment hotels.
• Transient occupancy residential structures.
• Extended-stay hotels that rent units (including units with kitchens) for 30 days or fewer.
• Private residential clubs.
• Tourist courts.
• Hostels that contain both dormitory-style accommodations and private guest rooms that may be reserved.2

A “hotel” does not include corporate housing, rooming houses, boarding house, single room occupancy housing, single-unit licensed bed and breakfasts, or short-term rentals under Chapter 4.05 of the Anaheim Municipal Code.3

“Hotel workers” entitled to the rights and protections of the HWPO are any persons employed by a hotel employer to provide services at a hotel.4 Managerial, supervisory or confidential employees of a hotel employer are not hotel workers for the purposes of the HWPO.5

Personal Security Devices

A hotel employer must provide, and maintain in good working order, a personal security device at no cost to each hotel worker assigned to work in a guest room or bathroom that no other hotel worker is assigned to work. 6 The personal security device must be a portable emergency contact device, such as a panic button, that signals the hotel worker's location and provides direct contact with the hotel worker and a hotel security guard, manager or supervisor designated to respond to violent or threatening conduct. 7

Devices such as whistles, noisemakers and alarm bells that do not provide direct contact to the person designated to respond to violent or threatening conduct do meet the requirements of the HWPO. 8

A hotel employer must have designated and assigned response personnel available at all times to monitor and immediately respond to any personal security device activations, subject to specific training requirements discussed below.9

A hotel worker may activate their personal security device during an emergency that the hotel worker reasonably believes creates an immediate threat to public safety or is of substantial risk of property loss or destruction, or during violent or threatening conduct.10 Violent or threatening conduct includes the use or threat of physical violence, sexual conduct or solicitation directed toward a hotel worker without the hotel worker's consent.11

The HWPO authorizes a hotel worker to cease work immediately and leave the area prior to or upon activation of the personal security device to await assistance.12 No hotel worker may be subject to an adverse employment action such as termination, reduced wages or work hours, altered work schedules, increased workloads for ceasing work under these conditions unless there is clear and convincing evidence the hotel worker knowingly and intentionally made a false claim of an emergency.13

The HWPO does not require that a hotel worker use the personal security device before dialing 911. If an employee chooses to dial 911 instead of using the personal security device, the employee is still afforded the protections under the HWPO, such as ceasing work and leaving the area to await a response from 911. 14

Hotel Workers’ Rights

The HWPO provides for various rights and protections to hotel workers who bring violent or threatening conduct to their employer's attention.

Hotel employers must provide up to three hours of paid work time on the date the hotel worker experienced the violent or threatening conduct to report the incident to law enforcement and to consult with a counselor or advisor of the hotel worker's choice.15 A hotel employer can neither prevent or attempt to prevent a hotel worker from reporting the violent or threatening conduct to law enforcement, nor retaliate against a hotel worker for choosing or not choosing to report the conduct to law enforcement.16

Upon request, a hotel employer must provide a hotel worker with a reasonable accommodation related to the violent or threatening conduct. Reasonable accommodations may include a modified work schedule; reassignment to a vacant position; or other reasonable adjustment to job structure, workplace facility or work requirements.17

Training, Notice and Recordkeeping Requirements

The HWPO requires hotel employers to provide comprehensive training to hotel workers on the following:

• Use and maintenance of the personal security devices;
• Hotel employer's protocol for responding to activation of a personal security device; and
• Rights of hotel workers and obligations of hotel employers as set forth in the HWPO.18

Hotel employers must provide initial training by either January 31, 2024, or the hotel worker's hire date, whichever is later, and then subsequent training at least annually thereafter.19 This training must be during paid work hours and in English and any other language spoken by 10 percent or more of hotel workers.20

Hotel employers must also provide comprehensive training to personnel who will be responsible for responding to personal security device activations. This training must include materials on:

• Requirements of the HWPO;
• Proper functioning and maintenance of the personal security devices; and
• Protocols for responding to a personal security device activation.21

This training must also be during paid work hours and conducted at least annually.22 Hotel employers must maintain accurate attendance records of any training required under the HWPO.23

Hotel employers must provide notice to all guests of the HWPO's requirements in two ways:

• At the time of check in, the hotel employer must require guests to acknowledge either electronically or in person that “Anaheim law protects hotel workers from threatening behavior, and in compliance with such law, this hotel provides personal security devices to its employees;” and
• Prominently display in each guest room a written notification that “Anaheim law protects hotel workers from threatening behavior,” with a citation to Chapter 6.101 of the Anaheim Municipal Code and a statement that the hotel employer provides personal security devices to its employees.24

Hotel employers must also retain records of incidents where personal security devices were activated for at least three years from the date of the incident25

Enforcement

The HWPO may be enforced by a civil action filed in superior court.26 An aggrieved person who claims a violation of the HWPO may seek and receive injunctive relief against any person violating the HWPO, monetary damages reflecting the aggrieved person's actual damages or statutory damages in the amount $100 per aggrieved person per day of violation, whichever is more.27 Statutory damages may be capped at $500 per day in total; however, any violations found to be willful will triple the amount of damages to be paid.28

The court is also directed to award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, including expert witness fees, to a successful plaintiff.29 Notwithstanding Code of Civil Procedure section 998, a successful defendant shall not be awarded reasonable attorneys' fees and costs unless the court finds that the filing of the civil action was frivolous, unreasonable or groundless, or that a plaintiff continued litigating a case after it became so.30

Retaliation

Hotel workers are protected from any adverse action such as termination, reduction in wages or discrimination for opposing any practice prohibited by the HWPO, participating in proceedings relating to the HWPO, seeking to enforce their rights under the HWPO, or otherwise exercising their rights under the HWPO (“protected activities”).31

If a hotel employer takes an adverse action against a hotel worker within one year of the hotel worker engaging in a protected activities under the HWPO, the hotel employer must provide to the hotel worker a detailed written statement of the reason(s) for the adverse action, including all facts claimed to substantiate the reason(s).32

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1. Anaheim Mun. Code sec. 6.101.010 sub. .070