LA hotel worker initiative petition proceeds to verification stage

A petition aimed at increasing pay and safety measures for Los Angeles hotel workers has enough raw signatures to proceed to the verification stage, the City Clerk announced Thursday.

The “Workplace Security, Workload, Wage and Retention Measures for Hotel Workers” initiative seeks an ordinance that would require hotels to supply their workers with personal security devices to protect themselves 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 to get 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 apply to hotels with 150 or more rooms to hotels with 60 rooms or more.

If enough signatures are verified, the City Council must either adopt the proposed ordinance, call a special election to submit the proposed ordinance to voters or submit the proposed ordinance to voters during the next available regular city election. Ballots have already been sent out for the upcoming June 7 election.

The Los Angeles City Clerk approved the initiative’s petition for circulation on Jan. 21, giving proponents 120 days to collect at least 61,076 valid signatures. Proponents turned in the petitions on May 2. The number of raw signatures turned in was not immediately available.