Category Archives: Labor Issues

How Overtime Rule Will Affect Hospitality

It might only be June, but hoteliers are already preparing for how the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently announced overtime rule will impact their properties when it takes effect Dec. 1. The rule, introduced on May 18 by the Obama administration, will broaden the number of workers eligible for overtime pay by raising the salary threshold for exempt workers to $47,476 from $23,660 per year.
Ryan Glasgow, Hunton & Williams labor and employment lawyer, has been advising employers in preparation for the final DOL rule, which will likely set the salary requirement for the professional, executive, and administrative exemptions at 40 percent of the national average for all non-hourly compensation in all industries.

clock overtime

“The DOL’s intention in increasing the salary was to increase the opportunities and increase the compensation pay to a lot of workers,” Glasgow says. “About 4 million workers are either going to be entitled to overtime or now receive an increase salary as a result of the change.”

Since hotels employ a large number of workers who fit the bill, many properties will go through an adjustment period as they restructure based on employees’ current wages.

“In the hospitality area, it’s the frontline, entry-level managers who will mostly be affected,” Glasgow says. “They have been, thus far, exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) executive exemptions. The problem is a lot of those frontline managers are currently making somewhere between $23,000 and $47,476. The hospitality industry is going to take a look at each one of those employees and decide if they’re going to increase that salary to the $47,476 level, or reclassify this person as non-exempt.”

For more info: http://bit.ly/29g9YeN

Comments Off on How Overtime Rule Will Affect Hospitality

Filed under Employee Practices, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Uncategorized

Workplace Violence – How to Deal with a Disgruntled Ex-Employee

violence
You are an executive working intently in your office when your assistant calls and informs you that a disgruntled ex-employee has shown up at the facility with a weapon and is threatening violence.  Will you know what to do, or better yet, what not to do?

 

Workplace violence can be defined as any act that creates intimidating, hostile, and offensive or a threatening work environment through unwelcome words, actions or physical contact.  As we have seen on multiple occasions, workplace violence and active shooter occurrences have been on a steady incline in this country.  Are you and your company prepared?

There are two types of workplace violence that need to be taken into consideration. First is the external variety – criminal activity from a non-employee, client or customer.  Second is the internal variety of a problem employee, employee personal relationship, hostile individual due to disciplinary actions or a facility closing.  Be prepared by taking some very easy measures:

  • Have a  written policy that is known throughout your organization
  • Take the position of ‘no tolerance’ for this activity
  • Train employees and provide ongoing training
  • Make sure your plan protects first, then concentrates on compliance
  • Understand and effectively communicate the legal implications

The potential deadly situations are reasonably foreseeable and this should be the standard used for compliance and determination of liability. Understand what data you need to assist in the prevention of workplace violence.  You not only have a legal responsibility but the obligation to your workforce.  Negligent hiring, high-risk terminations, retention, security, and poor training open you and your organization to the possibility of a workplace violence incident.  Human resources plays a key role in your workplace violence plan through effective pre-employment screening, establishing discrete communications channels, an Employee Assistance Program and coordination with your security personnel regarding response plans.

Do not allow yourself to make these five critical mistakes:

  • Denial and avoidance
  • Not having a threat response plan
  • Acting too hastily
  • Lack of total workforce participation
  • Insufficient assessment process

Coordinate a case assessment team and make sure they understand their purpose, make-up, objectives, and documentation measures.  The need to recognize the behavioral warning signs that signal potential trouble and that evaluation of behavior is not ‘profiling’.

Protective measures include:

  • A facility security audit
  • Obtaining local crime statistics
  • Recording a history of incidents
  • Personnel training
  • General security awareness training
  • An established liaison with local law enforcement.

Remember, ignorance does not relieve an organization of responsibility.  In summation, an organization has a Duty of Care responsibility to their employees and must plan, train, recognize, manage and respond to this growing problem within the business community.

For more: http://bit.ly/1XAJN02

Comments Off on Workplace Violence – How to Deal with a Disgruntled Ex-Employee

Filed under Crime, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training

Are you ready for overtime changes?

overtime
By now I’m sure most of us have completed our 2016 budgets, but how many of you have started strategic discussions about the effect the proposed overtime regulations in the United States could have on your hotels?

If not, now is the time to start.

On 30 June 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor released its proposed changes to the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. If adopted, these changes will affect roughly 4.6 million current salary-exempt employees. While this will affect all segments of the American workforce, given the pay scales of our industry, hoteliers will be significantly affected by these changes, making more employees eligible for overtime compensation.

Under the current regulations, to be eligible for the overtime exemption employees must meet the duties and responsibilities tests under one of the administrative, executive, professional and/or computer professional exemptions. In addition, they must be paid a minimum weekly salary of at least $455 per week (or $23,660 per year).

The new federal overtime plan would increase the minimum weekly salary of $455 per week to $970 per week or $50,440 per year, a 113% increase. This change also would include automatic periodic increases to the salary threshold.

This means that regardless of the duties and responsibilities test, if a salaried employee makes less than $970 a week, he or she would no longer be considered exempt for overtime compensation. Hours would need to be tracked and overtime paid for every hour worked in excess of 40 per week.

As a leader in the hospitality industry, this should have your full attention.

The comment period for the proposed changes ended 4 September 2015, and we should expect to receive the final ruling sometime early to mid-2016. Once released, the changes will be effective within 60 to 120 days. And while we don’t know whether the DOL will adopt the current proposal or bring a new idea to the table, we should expect some changes to the salary threshold, as its last increase was in 2004.

For more: http://bit.ly/1maZAWV

Comments Off on Are you ready for overtime changes?

Filed under Employee Benefits, Finances, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “New Year, New Challenges: What Hospitality Employers Need to Know”

As state and federal budget cuts tend to wane, the Department of Labor (DOL) is expected to step up enforcement against hospitality employers in the coming year. restaurant workerBecause the DOL considers the hospitality industry as a “fissured” industry, owners, franchisors, franchisees and management companies should be prepared to deal with inquiries, particularly in the areas of tipped employees and the misclassification of employees.

According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hospitality sector added 321,000 additional jobs in 2014. With all those new employees, as well as the continued addition of jobs we expect to see in coming year, here are our top predictions for labor law issues that will play a vital role in the hospitality industry in 2015.

For more: http://bit.ly/17E9sRJ

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Management Update: “New Year, New Challenges: What Hospitality Employers Need to Know”

Filed under Employee Benefits, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Hotel Restaurant, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Training

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Mayor Eric Garcetti Announces Minimum Wage Proposal for Los Angeles”

The proposal comes as the Los Angeles City Council is considering raising the wages of non-unionized hotel workers to $15.37 per hour.LA mayor Hotels near LAX that do not provide health care are already required to pay their employees a similar wage. Hotel operators that do offer health insurance must pay workers about $11 per hour. 

Following in the footsteps of cities like Seattle and San Francisco, Mayor Eric Garcetti made a Labor Day pitch for an increase, over the next three years, in the Los Angeles minimum wage to more than $13 per hour.

The mayor made the announcement in a South L.A. park at what’s billed as a “rally to address poverty in Los Angeles.”  His proposal would increase the city’s minimum wage to $13.25 an hour by 2017 and then tie the wage to the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners.

For more: http://bit.ly/1uAHNqs

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Mayor Eric Garcetti Announces Minimum Wage Proposal for Los Angeles”

Filed under Employee Benefits, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Employee Update: ” L.A. Hotel Workers Could Get $15.37 an Hour — the Highest Minimum Wage in the U.S.”

“…Hotel operators point to a report from the California Hotel & Lodging Association that shows severe job cuts from the higher wage,cash which will hurt the L.A. economy. But proponents say the local economy will benefit, because workers who earn more money will spend more…”

Barack Obama wants $10.10. Seattle got $15.

Now, Los Angeles hotel workers might be outdoing them all with the country’s highest minimum wage: $15.37 an hour, thanks to a new city ordinance that is expected to pass by Labor Day.

It would be a boon for Sandra Diaz, and 10,000 workers like her, who keep the hotel industry running in L.A. by cleaning rooms, doing laundry, and working the kitchens.

Fresh off a decision by Seattle’s city council last month to raise its hourly minimum wage to $15, L.A. lawmakers say the city’s booming tourism should translate to higher wages for hotel workers.

For more: http://bit.ly/1zpDClh

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Employee Update: ” L.A. Hotel Workers Could Get $15.37 an Hour — the Highest Minimum Wage in the U.S.”

Filed under Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Lawsuits to Recover Unpaid Wages and Damages For 89 Workers at Five Hotels Filed by US Labor Department”

“…Investigators from the division’s Columbus District Office found violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage, overtime and record keeping provisions for 61 workers jointly employed by Darpan Management and Fantastic Cleaning. Fantastic Cleaning, which provided housekeepers, attendants and laundry DOL staff for the hotels owned and operated by Darpan Management, misclassified the housekeepers, who were employees, as independent contractors. These employees were paid by the room and frequently did not earn enough to make the federal minimum wage…”

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed two lawsuits in the federal district court in Columbus against Darpan Management Inc.; five hotels the company owns and manages; and its owners, Darshan Shah, Vibhakar Shah and Prakash Patel.

One of the lawsuits addresses violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions for the hotel staff directly working for Darpan Management, and the other addresses similar violations for workers jointly employed by Fantastic Cleaning Ltd., a company that provided hotel staff to Darpan Management. The two lawsuits seek back wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages for 89 workers.

For more: http://www.norwalkreflector.com/article/4378786

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “Lawsuits to Recover Unpaid Wages and Damages For 89 Workers at Five Hotels Filed by US Labor Department”

Filed under Claims, Employment Practices Liability, Hotel Employees, Hotel Industry, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership

Hospitality Industry Employee Update: “L.A. May Hike Minimum Wage for Hotel Workers to Highest in U.S.”

Image

“Hotel owners and their representatives say a $15 minimum would trigger higher room rates and worker layoffs, as managements struggle to keep costs under control. The owners argue it’s unfair to take a piecemeal approach to pay rules — singling out a few industries or geographic areas.”

Labor leaders hope a proposal that would dramatically raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles for workers at large hotels to roughly $15 an hour will be a step toward pay hikes for other industries.

Members of the City Council expected to propose that large hotels pay their workers $15.37 an hour – more than double the national minimum of $7.25 an hour and push far above California’s rate of $8.

Union leaders want the increase to apply at hotels with 100 rooms or more, saying such a hike would lift housekeepers, busboys and maintenance workers out of poverty and inject much-needed cash into a  languorous local economy.

For more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-minimum-wage-hike-hotel-workers-20140114,0,2611025.story#axzz2qOCybJiD

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Employee Update: “L.A. May Hike Minimum Wage for Hotel Workers to Highest in U.S.”

Filed under Employee Benefits, Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Uncategorized

Hospitality Industry Theft Risks: Maine Restaurant Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling $80,000 Over 10 Months

“…Starting in January 2013 and continuing through October, (the defendant) began forging checks and taking cash from the Brass Compass and Hospitality Industry Employee TheftArcher’s restaurant. The lawsuit claims that Allen forged Archer’s name on $49,592 in checks and stole about $30,000 in cash from the two restaurants…Also, during those 10 months, Allen failed to pay state sales taxes for the two restaurants, which has resulted in Archer incurring interest and penalties for the failure to pay the taxes…”

The owner of two Rockland restaurants has filed a lawsuit against her former bookkeeper, alleging she embezzled nearly $80,000. Lynn Archer and her company Archer’s LLC filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Knox County Superior Court against Melanie L. Allen of Union.

Allen was arrested Oct. 23 by Rockland police and charged with felony theft and felony forgery. At the time, police said Allen was suspected of embezzling at least $18,000 from the Brass Compass Cafe and Archer’s on the Pier, both Rockland restaurants owned by Lynn Archer.

For more:  http://bangordailynews.com/2014/01/02/news/midcoast/rockland-restaurant-owner-sues-bookkeeper-over-alleged-theft/?ref=latest

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Theft Risks: Maine Restaurant Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling $80,000 Over 10 Months

Filed under Labor Issues, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft

Hospitality Industry Risk Solutions: “2014 Hospitality Insurance & Loss Prevention Summit” On February 10 Presented By Petra Risk Solutions

Hospitality Insurance & Loss Prevention Summit Feb 10 2014 Petra Risk Solutions

2014-HLC-Brochure-12-13-20131

 

Comments Off on Hospitality Industry Risk Solutions: “2014 Hospitality Insurance & Loss Prevention Summit” On February 10 Presented By Petra Risk Solutions

Filed under Conferences, Employment Practices Liability, Guest Issues, Insurance, Labor Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training