O27881
City Council Meeting: September 24, 2024 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2788 (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA AMENDING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE
SECTION 4.67.030 AND ADDING SECTION 4.67.115 RELATING TO HOTEL
WORKER PROTECTIONS
WHEREAS, on September 10, 2019, the City Council of the City of Santa Monica
adopted Ordinance No. 2614 (CCS), adding Chapter 4.67 to the Santa Monica Municipal
Code (the “Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance”), to protect hotel workers from physical
violence, provide them fair compensation for workload, and require education and training
to enable hotel workers to protect their own rights and safety as well as public health and
safety; and
WHEREAS, hotel workers have been subject to being assigned overly
burdensome workloads and unexpected overtime; and
WHEREAS, ensuring that hotel workers receive fair compensation when their work
assignments exceed proscribed limits promotes the public interest and enables hotel
workers to receive fair pay for honest work, to perform their work in a manner that
adequately protects their personal wellbeing, and to meet personal and family obligations;
and
WHEREAS, enforcement of the existing requirement for fair compensation for
workload has been hampered by the inability to obtain accurate and legible records that
provide information necessary to ascertain compliance in a reasonably concise and
organized manner; and
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WHEREAS, third-party contractors and staffing agencies with limited experience
operating in Santa Monica are often not aware of the fair compensation for workload
provision and the corresponding records requirement and consequently, may not be
maintaining sufficiently detailed records of hotel workers’ workload; and
WHEREAS, given limited enforcement resources at the time that the Hotel Worker
Protection Ordinance was first enacted, said ordinance currently lacks authority for
administrative citation enforcement, which has proven effective for the City’s other
minimum wage and living wage ordinances; and
WHEREAS, authorizing an administrative citation enforcement mechanism for the
workload provision of the Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance will further the public health,
safety, and welfare.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES
HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.67.030, subsection (d), is
hereby amended to read as follows:
4.67.030 Measures to provide fair compensation for workload.
(a) Workload Limitation. For hotels with fewer than forty guest rooms, a hotel
employer shall not require a room attendant to clean rooms amounting to a total of more
than four thousand square feet of floor space in any eight-hour workday, unless the hotel
employer pays the room attendant twice the room attendant's regular rate of pay for each
and every hour worked during the workday. For hotels with forty or more guest rooms, a
hotel employer shall not require a room attendant to clean rooms amounting to a total of
more than three thousand five hundred square feet of floor space in any eight-hour
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workday, unless the hotel employer pays the room attendant twice the room attendant's
regular rate of pay for each and every hour worked during the workday. If a room
attendant is assigned to clean seven or more checkout or additional bed rooms during
any eight-hour workday, each such checkout or additional bed room shall for purposes of
this subsection count as five hundred square feet, regardless of the actual square footage
of each room. The limitations contained herein apply to any combination of spaces,
including guest rooms, meeting rooms, and other rooms within the hotel, and apply
regardless of the furniture, equipment, or amenities in such rooms. The hotel employer
shall state the actual square footage of each room in any written assignment of rooms
that it provides to room attendants.
(b) Workload Proration. The maximum floor space set forth in subsection (a) shall
be reduced on a prorated basis if a room attendant works less than eight hours in a
workday, shall be increased on a prorated basis for each hour of overtime that a room
attendant works in excess of eight hours in a workday, and shall be calculated on a
prorated basis by room attendant if a room attendant is assigned to clean rooms jointly
with one or more other room attendants.
(c) Voluntary Overtime. A hotel employer shall not require or permit a hotel worker
to work more than ten hours in a workday unless the hotel worker consents in writing to
do so. A hotel worker's consent shall not be valid unless the hotel employer has advised
the hotel worker in writing seven days prior to the hotel worker's consent that the hotel
worker may decline to work more than ten hours in a workday and that the hotel employer
will not subject the hotel worker to any adverse employment action for declining to work
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more than ten hours in a workday. This subsection shall not apply in the event of an
emergency.
(d) Preservation of Records. Each hotel employer shall maintain for at least three
years a record of the following information for each room attendant for each workday:
(1) Name, rate of pay, and pay received;
(2) Total number of rooms cleaned;
(3) Total square footage of rooms cleaned;
(4) Number of additional bed rooms cleaned;
(5) Number of checkout rooms cleaned;
(6) Overtime hours worked; and
(7) Any written consents provided pursuant to subsection (c) above.
Hotel employers shall maintain all original records relating to Section 4.67.030(a) and
documenting the above information, including without limitation hotel booking records;
sign-in sheets; assignment sheets; tabulations by housekeepers, supervisors or other
employees, agents or contractors of the hotel employer; and any other documents or
records used to track workload each day. In addition to the original records described
above, a hotel employer shall maintain for at least three years a daily summary of the room
attendant’s name and the information in (2) through (5) above in a reasonably legible
format, such that compliance with Section 4.67.030(a) for any day over the three-year
period can be ascertained without reference to any other documents. A hotel employer
that uses a contractor or staffing agency to provide room attendants remains responsible
for maintaining both the daily original records and summary records. A hotel employer
shall make these records available for inspection and copying to any hotel worker or hotel
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worker's employee representative, except that the names and other personally identifying
information of individual hotel workers shall be redacted except to the extent that the
records identify the hotel worker who is making the request.
SECTION 2. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.67.115 is hereby added to
read as follows:
4.67.115 Law enforcement access, remedies, penalties.
(a) Records and Interview Access; Cooperation with Investigations. To monitor and
investigate compliance with the requirements of this Chapter, every hotel employer shall
cooperate with City-authorized investigators, including, but not limited to: accessing
records, and allowing investigators to interview persons, including hotel workers, during
normal business hours.
(b) Any person violating subsection (a), section 4.67.030, or any rule or regulation
adopted pursuant to this Chapter, may be subject to administrative citation pursuant to
Chapter 1.09 of this Code.
(c) Unless otherwise specifically provided, the fine amount for a violation of
subsection (a) of section 4.67.030 shall be the same as the fine amount for a violation of
section 4.63.015; the fine amount for a violation of subsection (d) of section 4.67.030 shall
be the same as the fine amount for a violation of subsection (g) of section 4.62.015; and
the fine amount for a violation of subsection (a) shall be the same as the fine amount for
violation of subsection (a) of section 4.62.100.
SECTION 3. Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 4.67.120 is hereby amended
to read as follows:
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(a) Civil Action. The City or any aggrieved person may enforce the provisions of this
Chapter by means of a civil action.
(b) Injunction. Any person who commits an act, proposes to commit an act, or
engages in any pattern or practice that violates this Chapter may be enjoined therefrom
by a court of competent jurisdiction. An action for injunction under this subsection may be
brought by any aggrieved person, by the City Attorney, or by any person or entity who will
fairly and adequately represent the interests of an aggrieved person or persons.
(c) Damages and Penalties. Any person who violates the provisions of this Chapter
is liable for any actual damages suffered by any aggrieved person or for statutory damages
up to the amount of one hundred dollars per aggrieved person per day, except that
statutory damages for failure to maintain records shall not exceed three thousand dollars
per day in total. For willful violations, the amount of monies and penalties to be paid under
this subsection shall be trebled.
(d) Attorneys' Fees and Costs. In a civil action brought under this Section, the court
shall award the prevailing party reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, including expert
witness fees, except that, notwithstanding Section 998 of the Code of Civil Procedure, a
prevailing defendant shall not be awarded fees and costs unless the court finds the action
was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless when brought, or the plaintiff continued to
litigate after it clearly became so.
(e) Cumulative Remedies. The remedies set forth in this Chapter are cumulative.
Nothing in this Chapter shall be interpreted as restricting, precluding, or otherwise limiting
a separate or concurrent criminal prosecution under this Code or State law.
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SECTION 4. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to
effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 5. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court
of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed
this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance
would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 6. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of
this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective 30
days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
Douglas Sloan, City Attorney
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Approved and adopted this 24th day of September, 2024.
_____________________________
Phil Brock, Mayor
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Nikima S. Newsome, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby
certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 2788 (CCS) had its introduction on
September 10, 2024, and was adopted at the Santa Monica City Council meeting
held on September 24, 2024, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers de la Torre, Torosis, Davis, Parra, Zwick,
Mayor Brock, Mayor Pro Tem Negrete
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ATTEST:
_____________________________________ _________________
Nikima S. Newsome, City Clerk Date
A summary of Ordinance No. 2788 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to
California Government Code Section 40806.
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9/27/2024