For more information on the HWPO you may contact the city at 1-949-724-6000.

Coverage and Eligibility

A covered hotel employer under the HWPO is

• Any person who owns, controls or operates a hotel in the city; and
• 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, and may provide additional services, such as conference and meeting rooms, restaurants, bars or recreation facilities available to guests or to the general public. 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 Section 3-25-2.E of the city's zoning ordinance.3

“Hotel workers” entitled to the HWPO’s rights and protections are any person employed by a hotel employer to provide services at a hotel not including managerial, supervisory or confidential employees.4

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 restroom facility to which no other hotel worker is assigned.5 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. 6

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 not meet the HWPO's requirement.7

A hotel employer must always have a designated and assigned security guard available to provide immediate on-scene assistance to any personal security device activations. Hotels with fewer than 60 guest rooms may instead assign a supervisor or manager to provide immediate on-scene assistance to any personal security device activations, subject to specific training requirements discussed below.8

A hotel worker may activate their personal security device whenever they have reasonable belief that violent or threatening conduct, or an emergency, is occurring in their presence. 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.9

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. No hotel worker may be subject to an adverse employment action such as termination, reduced wages or work hours, altered work schedules, or increased workloads for activating a personal security device or 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.10

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 immediately provide sufficient paid time off to hotel workers to report the incident to law enforcement and consult with a counselor or advisor of the hotel worker's choice.11

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.12

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.13

Training

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.14

Hotel employers must provide this training in English to newly hired hotel workers within one month of hire, and hotels with 60 or more guest rooms must also provide this training in each language known by the hotel employer to be spoken by at least 10 percent of the hotel's workforce. Hotel employers must maintain accurate attendance records of any such trainings.15

Hotels with fewer than 60 guest rooms that choose to use a manager or supervisor to respond to personal security device activations must also provide at least three hours of training to the chosen manager or supervisory on the following topics:

• The HWPO’s requirements;
• Instruction on the proper functioning and maintenance of the hotel's personal security devices; and
• The protocols for responding to an activated personal security device.16

Hotel employers must provide this training annually to managers or supervisors designated to respond to activated personal security devices and must maintain accurate training record of attendance at any such trainings.17

Hotel Worker Workload Limitation

Hotel employers with at least 45 guest rooms are subject to limitations on the workload they may assign their hotel workers employed as a “room attendant.” Room attendants are hotel workers whose principal duties are to clean and put in order guest rooms in a hotel.18

Hotel employers with 45 to 59 guest rooms may not require room attendants to clean more than 4,500 square feet worth of guest rooms in an eight-hour shift unless they pay the room attendant twice their regular rate of pay for all hours worked during the workday. Hotel employers with 60 or more guest rooms may not require room attendants to clean more than 3,500 square feet worth of guest rooms in an eight-hour shift unless they pay the room attendant twice their regular rate of pay for all hours worked during the workday.19

Room cleaning involves performing services or tasks to maintain the cleanliness of a hotel room before, during and after a guest's stay. Room cleaning does not include:

• Time spent delivering to, or maintaining or organizing inventory (e.g., mini-bar, toiletries, towels, linens) in, guest rooms when not accompanying cleaning tasks;
• Turndown services or tasks associated with preparing already made beds when not accompanying cleaning tasks; and
• Preventative or as-needed maintenance activities, such as repair, replacement and maintenance of appliances, electronics, furniture, doors, windows, carpets, walls, plumbing and other fixtures.20

Certain tasks will reduce the square footage a room attendant may clean during each shift. For purposes of the square footage reduction rules, the following definitions apply:

• A “special-attention room” is a checkout room or a guest room where the occupant declined daily room cleaning on the immediately preceding day.
• An “additional bed room” is a guest room with at least one additional bed not regularly used in the guest room such as a cot or rollaway bed.
• A “hotel building” is a structure used as a hotel that contains one or more ground-floor public or guest entrances.21

The square footage limitation will be reduced by 500 square feet for each:

• Hotel building assigned in addition to the first hotel building.
• Additional floor in a hotel building in which they must clean more than two floors.22

Additionally, if a room attendant is assigned to clean six or more special-attention rooms or additional bed rooms in one workday, the total square footage limitation will be reduced by 500 square feet for each room beyond the fifth.23

The hotel employer must state the actual square footage of each room in any written assignment of room that it provides to room attendants, and the HWPO's limitations apply to any combination of spaces including guest rooms, meeting rooms and other rooms within the hotel regardless of furniture, equipment or amenities in the rooms.24

For room attendants who work less than eight hours in a workday or are assigned to perform room cleaning for less than eight hours in a workday, the square footage limitations shall be reduced proportionally. The square footage limitation shall be increased on a prorated basis for each hour of overtime that a room attendant works or if there are multiple room attendants assigned to jointly clean guest rooms.25

Hotel employers may not require or permit a hotel worker to work more than 10 hours in a workday unless the hotel worker consents in writing to do so. A hotel employer may not obtain this written consent without first advising the hotel worker in writing that the worker may decline to work more than 10 hours in a workday and that such declination will not subject the hotel worker to any adverse employment action.26

This overtime limitation will not apply during an emergency where there is an immediate threat to public safety or a substantial risk of property loss or destruction.27

Daily Room Sanitizing and Cleaning Policies

Hotel employers may not implement any program or policy where a guest room is not sanitized and cleaned after each and every night the room is occupied, including programs where a guest receives financial incentives to opt out of daily room cleaning.28

Notwithstanding this rule, hotel employers may establish or continue a sustainable environmental program under which guests are encouraged to reuse linens, bath towels or similar items, and hotel employers are not required to clean guest rooms where the guest has opted out of cleaning without hotel solicitation or wishes to not be disturbed.29

Posting and Notice Requirements

Hotel employers must display on the back of each guest room's and restroom facility's entrance door a written notification in a font size no less than 18 points that includes a:

• Heading that states, “The Law Protects Hotel Workers From Threatening Behavior”;
• Citation to the HWPO; and
• Notification to guests that the hotel employer provides personal security devices to its employees.30

Hotel employers must provide a written notice of the hotel workers' rights under the HWPO at the time of hire and provide this notice in English, Spanish and any other language known by the hotel employer to be spoken by 10 percent of the workforce.31

Recordkeeping

Hotel employers must keep for three years records for each room attendant as follows:

• Room attendant's name;
• Rate of pay;
• Pay received;
• Identification of rooms cleaned;
• Actual square footage of each room cleaned;
• Number of special-attention rooms, number of additional hotel buildings, number of additional bed rooms, and total square footage cleaned for each workday;
• Overtime hours worked for each workday;
• Any written consent provided to work in excess of 10 hours in a workday;
• Records of completion of training;
• Records of incidents where personal security devices were activated.32

Hotel employers must make these records available for inspection and copying to any hotel worker or their designated representative; however, the records shall be redacted for personally identifying information of any hotel worker other than the worker making the request. A hotel employer must also maintain accurate records of the square footage of each room that room attendants are assigned to clean and shall provide a copy to any hotel worker who requests the record.33

Hotel employers must also keep for three years attendance records for managers or supervisors trained as response personnel to activated personal security devices.34

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.35

If a hotel employer takes an adverse action against a hotel worker within one year of the hotel worker engaging in a protected activity 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).36

Enforcement

The HWPO may be enforced by a civil action filed in superior court by either the city or an aggrieved person.37A party who claims a violation of the HWPO may seek and receive injunctive relief against any person violating the HWPO, as well as 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.38 Statutory damages for failure to maintain records shall not exceed $1,000 per day in total. Any violations that are found to be willful will triple the amount of damages to be paid.39

The court is also directed to award reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, including expert witness fees, to a successful plaintiff. A prevailing defendant will not be awarded fees and costs unless the court determines the action was frivolous, unreasonable or groundless when brought, or the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so.40

Exemptions and Waivers

Any or all of the requirements pertaining to hotel worker workload limitations, daily room sanitizing and cleaning policies, and recordkeeping may be waived pursuant to a bona fide collective bargaining agreement that includes the waiver in clear and unambiguous written terms. Neither party to the collective bargaining relationship may waive any provision of the HWPO unilaterally.41

A hotel employer may be granted a waiver of the HWPO's requirements if it can demonstrate that with its current financial condition, compliance with the HWPO would result in significant economic hardship, such as bankruptcy, a hotel shutdown, reduction of the workforce by more than 20 percent, or curtailment of hotel workers' total hours by more than 30 percent.42

Prior to submitting a waiver application, the hotel employer must provide written notice of the application to all employed hotel workers, as well as written notice of the determination to hotel workers within three days of receipt.43

A determination to grant or deny the waiver may be appealed to the City Council.44

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1. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

2. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

3. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

4. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

5. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(1)

6. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

7. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

8. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(3)

9. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

10. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(2)

11. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(B)(1)

12. Irvine Mun. Code secs. 3-6-102(B)(2) and (3)

13. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(B)(4)

14. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(D)

15. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(D)

16. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(3)

17. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(3)

18. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

19. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(A)

20. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

21. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-101

22. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(A)

23. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(A)

24. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(A)

25. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(B)

26. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(C)

27. Irvine Mun. Code secs. 3-6-101; 3-6-103(C)

28. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(D)

29. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(D)

30. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(C)

31. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(F)

32. Irvine Mun. Code secs. 3-6-102(A)(3) and (E); 3-6-103(E)

33. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-103(E)

34. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-102(A)(3)

35. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-105

36. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-105

37. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-109(A)

38. Irvine Mun. Code secs. 3-6-109(B) and (C)

39. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-109(C)

40. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-109(D)

41. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-108

42. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-104(B)

43. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-104(C)

44. Irvine Mun. Code sec. 3-6-104(B)