Los Angeles City Hotel Worker Training Ordinance

To determine if a hotel falls within the city limits, go to the city of Los Angeles Neighborhood Info website. You can find more information regarding the HWTO in the city of Los Angeles website. You can also contact the Office of Wage Standards (the OWS) at 1-844 -924-3752 or by email at wagesla@lacity.org.

Coverage and Eligibility

A covered hotel employer under the HWTO is any of the following:

• A person who owns, controls or operates a hotel in the city; or
• A person or contractor who, in managerial, supervisory, or confidential capacity, employs or directs hotel workers to provide services at a hotel in conjunction with the hotel’s purpose.2

A “hotel” is an establishment that provides temporary overnight lodging for payment and contains 60 or more guest rooms rented for periods of 30 days or fewer.3 Types of hotels include:

• Hotels.
• Motel lodges.
• Motels.
• Apartment hotels.
• Transient occupancy residential structures.
• Extended-stay rental units, including units with kitchens.
• Private residential clubs.
• Tourist courts.
• Hostels.4

“Hotel” also includes any contracted, leased or sublet premises connected to or operated in conjunction with the hotel’s purpose, or that provides services at the hotel.5

A “hotel” does not include corporate housing, rooming houses, boarding houses, single-room occupancy housing, licensed bed and breakfast establishments with a single unit residence, or short term rentals under Section 12.22 A.32 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.6

A “guest room” is any room, suite of rooms, dwelling unit, cottage, or bungalow intended for transient sleeping.7

“Hotel workers” entitled to the rights and protections of the HWTO are any person whose primary place of employment is at a hotel and who is directly employed by a hotel employer, or by a person who has contracted with the hotel employer to provide services at a hotel. Managerial, supervisory or confidential employees of a hotel employer are not hotel workers for the purposes of the HWTO.8

Public Housekeeping Training

A hotel employer must ensure that each hotel worker who works as a “room attendant” completes public housekeeping training, paid for by the hotel employer, and may not employ any hotel worker as a room attendant for more than 120 days without the worker obtaining a valid public housekeeping certificate.9 A room attendant is a hotel worker whose principal duties are to clean and put in order guest rooms.10

A hotel employer must contract with a city designated public housekeeping training organization to conduct a public housekeeping training program and issue a public housekeeping certificate to each person who successfully completes the training.11 A public housekeeping certificate is valid for five years.12

Public housekeeping training consists of at least six hours of training, including live and interactive instruction, covering the following topics:

• Hotel worker rights and hotel employer responsibilities under the HWTO;
• Best practices for identifying and responding to suspected instances of human trafficking, domestic violence, or violent or threatening behavior;
• Best practices for effective cleaning techniques to prevent the spread of disease;
• Best practices for identifying and avoiding insect or vermin infestations; and
• Best practices for identifying and responding to other potential criminal activity.13

A hotel employer must document compliance with the training requirement by completing and signing a form certifying that the training was conducted. Hotel employers must also retain records, including keeping a copy of a valid public housekeeping certificate for each worker employed as a room attendant.14

Notice

Hotel employers must provide a written notice of the hotel workers' rights under the HWTO at the time of hire and provide this notice in English, Spanish, and any language spoken by 10 percent of the hotel employer’s workforce.15

Retaliation

Hotel workers are protected from any adverse action such as termination or reduction in wages for opposing any practice prohibited by the HWTO, participating in proceedings relating to the HWTO, seeking to enforce their rights under the HWTO, or otherwise exercising their rights under the HWTO. A Hotel Employer who takes any adverse action against a hotel worker who engaged in any of these activities within the prior year must provide the worker, at or before the time of the action, with a detailed written statement of the reason(s) for the action, including all facts supporting those reason(s).16

Waiver and Exemption

The requirements of the HWTO 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 HWTO unilaterally.17

A hotel employer may apply for a one-year waiver of the HWTO’s requirements based on financial hardship if it can demonstrate that with its current financial condition, compliance with the HWTO would result in:

• Either bankruptcy or a shutdown of the hotel;
• A reduction of the workforce by more than 20 percent; or
• A reduction of hotel workers' total hours by more than 30 percent.18

Prior to submitting the application, the hotel employer must provide written notice of the application to all employed hotel workers who work as room attendants, as well as written notice of the determination to all room attendant workers within three days of receipt.19

Enforcement

The HWTO may be enforced through a civil action in superior court. A party who claims a violation of the HWTO may seek and receive injunctive relief against any person violating the HWTO and monetary damages reflecting the aggrieved person's actual damages or statutory damtages in the amount of $100 per aggrieved person per day of violation. Statutory damages shall not exceed $1,000 per day. Any violations that are found to be willful will triple the amount of damages to be paid.20

1. Los Angeles Mun. Code sec. 182.22