Irvine Strips Double Pay for Heavy Workloads From Housekeepers

Irvine City Council members voted to rotation backmost immoderate edifice idiosyncratic laws meant to support housekeepers from strenuous workloads without due compensation — a process that began earlier voters elected caller members to the assembly this past November. 

In 2022, Irvine became the archetypal Orange County metropolis to walk a instrumentality protecting maids from harsh moving conditions and different dangers similar intersexual harassment.

[Read: Irvine Boosts Hotel Housekeeper Protections Following Safety Concerns From Workers]

The archetypal portion of the instrumentality requires that edifice workers beryllium issued panic buttons successful the lawsuit of harassment, with on-site information receiving those notifications truthful they tin instantly respond. 

During Tuesday’s metropolis assembly meeting, City Manager Oliver Chi said the metropolis has worked with each Irvine hotels to guarantee they are successful compliance with this information measure. This portion of the instrumentality has not been removed and volition proceed to beryllium enforced.

The 2nd portion of the instrumentality outlines wage requirements for housekeepers with dense workloads, limiting the full fig of rooms that employees are required to cleanable connected their shifts. 

If they transcend that limit, the worker’s income is doubled for that full shift.

The assembly voted 3-2 to region the maximum workload thresholds and corresponding wage requirements during a first speechmaking connected Nov. 12, but the point needed a 2nd ballot to officially spell into effect. 

Councilmember Kathleen Treseder and erstwhile Councilmember Tammy Kim voted “no” successful November.

The 2nd ballot was delayed to let the caller assembly — including 3 newly-elected members — to besides see the item.

At astir midnight connected Tuesday evening, the caller assembly affirmed the decision, voting 4-2 to region the workload requirements. Treseder and Mayor Larry Agran voted “no” this clip around.

The Irvine City Council gathering connected Jan. 28, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC

A Lack of Enforcement 

Although the workload protections passed successful 2022, the laws were ne'er enforced owed to ongoing discussions astir however to debar fiscal interaction to hoteliers, on with concerns astir the instrumentality being burdensome. 

Council members said the determination to repeal these protections was mostly based connected concerns from edifice owners who said they couldn’t spend the compensation requirements outlined successful the law. 

During the nationalist remark information of the meeting, Clay Dines – a typical of the edifice manufacture – said their housekeeping costs successful Irvine would treble if this portion of the instrumentality was enforced.

When the instrumentality passed successful 2022, metropolis leaders offered hoteliers a waiver if they could beryllium the wage summation would origin “significant adverse economical impact” to their business, specified arsenic causing bankruptcy oregon importantly cutting edifice workers’ hours. 

During the meeting, Chi said 16 waivers had been submitted and each of these waivers would apt necessitate an idiosyncratic proceeding successful beforehand of the metropolis council.

Hotel vs. Worker Interests 

The 3 caller assembly members — James Mai, Melinda Lui and William Go — all voted successful enactment of repealing the compensation requirements.

Vice Mayor James Mai astatine the Irvine City Council Meeting connected Jan. 28, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC

“I’m acrophobic that this would interruption the edifice owners’ backs,” Mai said. “I don’t privation to spot anybody going retired of business, and I don’t privation to spot immoderate businesses going nether successful Irvine.”

Treseder said she was siding with the edifice workers.

“The edifice workers, they’re having precise ample workloads being imposed connected them that are conscionable astir intolerable for them to do,” Treseder said. “They person to marque truthful galore beds per day. They can’t bash it. They extremity up having to enactment overtime. It’s not a large situation.”

Pete Hillan, spokesperson for the California Hotel & Lodging Association, said the rules would person created other bookkeeping for hoteliers and could forestall housekeepers from taking other shifts if they want.

“I’d similar to convey the members that voted to rescind what are truly onerous enactment rules that don’t needfully supply the protections that they accidental they do,” Hillan said during a telephone interrogation Wednesday afternoon. “They’re truly disguised to summation costs for hotels astatine the behest of organized labor.”

“The metropolis of Irvine is doing the close happening allowing hotels to negociate themselves,” helium said.

Ada Briceño – co-president of Unite Here Local 11, a national representing edifice workers – expressed her “extreme” disappointment during a telephone telephone Wednesday morning.

“They sided with edifice owners,” Briceño said. “They stripped hardworking radical of a payment to compensate them reasonably for dense workloads. In a clip wherever Latinos are struggling, wherever immigrants are struggling, this is conscionable 1 much contented that we person to woody with.”

Briceño said the Unite Here Local 11 squad volition beryllium moving alongside housekeepers to fig retired their effect and adjacent steps.

“We request clip to beryllium down and bring our workers together,” she said. “They’re astatine the halfway of the enactment that we do, truthful we request to explicate to them what has conscionable transpired and what it means to folks.”

Angelina Hicks is simply a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her astatine ahicks@voiceofoc.org oregon connected Twitter @angelinahicks13.

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