§ 5.93.020. Measures to protect hotel employees from threatening behavior.

A.

Purpose. Hotel employees who work by themselves are vulnerable to crimes and other threatening behavior, including sexual assault. This Chapter enables hotel workers to protect their safety by, among other measures, requiring that hotel employers provide workers who clean guest rooms with panic buttons which they may use to report threatening conduct by a hotel guest and other emergencies. Many instances of sexual assault go unreported to the police. This Chapter also includes provisions that support hotel employees' ability to report criminal and threatening guest behavior to the proper authorities.

B.

Each hotel employee assigned to work in a guest room or bathroom without other employees present shall be provided by the hotel employer, at no cost to the hotel employee, a panic button.

1.

If a hotel employee encounters a situation necessitating his or her use of the panic button as described above, the hotel employee may cease working and remove him/herself from the situation to await the arrival of the employee or security guard responsible for providing immediate assistance. No hotel employee may be disciplined for ceasing work under these circumstances.

2.

No hotel employee may be disciplined for use of a panic button absent clear and convincing evidence the hotel employee knowingly and intentionally made a false claim of emergency.

C.

A hotel employee who brings to the attention of a hotel employer the occurrence of violence or threatening behavior, including but not limited to indecent exposure, solicitation, assault, or coercive sexual conduct by a guest, shall be afforded the following rights.

1.

If the hotel employee reasonably believes that his or her safety is at risk and so requests, the hotel employee shall be reassigned to a different floor, or, if none is available for his or her job classification, a different work area, away from the person who is alleged to have engaged in the violence or threatening behavior, for the entire duration of the person's stay at the hotel;

2.

The hotel employer shall immediately allow the affected hotel employee sufficient paid time to contact the police and provide a police statement and to consult with a counselor or advisor of the hotel employee's choosing; the hotel employer will permit, but may never require, the complaining hotel employee to report an incident involving alleged criminal conduct by a guest to the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction; and

3.

The hotel employer shall cooperate with any investigation into the incident undertaken by the law enforcement agency and/or any attorney for the complaining hotel employee.

D.

Each hotel shall place a sign on the back of each guestroom door, written in a font size of no less than eighteen (18) points, that includes the heading "The Law Protects Hotel Housekeepers and Employees From Threatening Behavior," a citation to this Chapter of the Oakland Municipal Code, and notice of the fact that the hotel is providing panic buttons to its housekeepers, room servers, and other hotel employees assigned to work in guest rooms without other employees present, in compliance with this Chapter.

(Res. No. 87287, § 1, 7-24-2018)