AGENCY TESTIMONY
Recent hotel-related legislation and its impact
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106 sec
Commissioner Mayuga discusses recent hotel-related legislation, including Local Law 99 of 2020 and Local Law 104 of 2021, and their impacts on hotel workers and consumers.
- Local Law 99 of 2020 created protections for hotel service workers and required hotels to notify guests of service disruptions
- Local Law 104 of 2021 provided temporary pandemic-era severance pay for laid-off hotel service workers
- These laws aimed to protect workers' livelihoods and support the industry's economic recovery
Vilda Vera Mayuga
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Local Law 99 of 2020 was a 2 part law that created a private right of action for hotel service workers who are illegally fired after a change in hotel ownership or management and requires hotels to notify guests of service disruptions that would substantially affect their stay.
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Displacing workers should always be the last resort.
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This law protects against immediate and unnecessary job loss, which can be financially devastating for hotel workers and their families.
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We also supported enhancing consumer protections for guests who face disruptions of hotel services.
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Complaints can be filed with DCWP for issues related to a service disruption or for any of our other consumer protection laws.
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Our agency takes each complaint seriously, and we work to mediate individual complaints for consumers.
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Further, we monitor incoming complaints for patterns of noncompliance in all of our categories and initiate investigations when we identify such patterns.
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Local law 104 of 2021 was a temporary pandemic error measure that required employers of laid off hotel service workers from certain large hotels to pay those workers $500 in severance pay per week for up to 30 weeks.
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DCWP supported this legislation to provide an economic lifeline for 1000 of hotel workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
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Those efforts not only protected the livelihoods of these hotel workers, but also supported the economic recovery of the industry.
