Daily housekeeping required by law in Nevada
Feb 6, 2022, 11:20 pm
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Daily housekeeping required by law in Nevada
Check out this article: https://www.reviewjournal.com/busine...tions-2520153/
Executive summary: Nevada law passed in August 2020 and amended in June 2021 requires daily housekeeping of hotel rooms in Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno) in response to COVID-19. Culinary Union, which represents housekeepers in Las Vegas, is complaining that this law is being disregarded, resulting in 1/3 of its members still being out of work.
Here are my observations and opinions:
- The law is probably outdated. Based on the current science about COVID-19, it's unlikely that latent virus on surfaces, particularly from hotel guests in their same room picking it up from within their hotel room as deposited by them on previous days in the same room, is contributing to people getting sick.
- I doubt the law absolutely requires daily housekeeping for multi-day stays if the guest declines it.
- Hotels are taking advantage of the situation by maintaining a default "no daily housekeeping except by request" policy, which according to the Culinary Union is against the law.
- The Culinary Union's stated gripe, at least per the article, is not that 1/3 of its housekeepers are out of work. Rather, they say the problem is that those that are working must walk extra distances within the hotel, as the rooms that they service on a shift aren't in a row on a single floor, but are more spread out within the hotel. That sounds like a talking point to me, when the real issue is that the amount of workers employed, and thus paying union dues, is reduced by 1/3.
This issue is somewhat local to Nevada. Most cities in the US West are non-union for the most part. Las Vegas is a notable exception, where certain unions, including the Culinary Union, have a surprising amount of influence. This may not be uncommon in the eastern US, but it's rare in the west. Also, with the exception of this particular protest covered in the article, this issue doesn't seem to be having much impact.
Executive summary: Nevada law passed in August 2020 and amended in June 2021 requires daily housekeeping of hotel rooms in Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno) in response to COVID-19. Culinary Union, which represents housekeepers in Las Vegas, is complaining that this law is being disregarded, resulting in 1/3 of its members still being out of work.
Here are my observations and opinions:
- The law is probably outdated. Based on the current science about COVID-19, it's unlikely that latent virus on surfaces, particularly from hotel guests in their same room picking it up from within their hotel room as deposited by them on previous days in the same room, is contributing to people getting sick.
- I doubt the law absolutely requires daily housekeeping for multi-day stays if the guest declines it.
- Hotels are taking advantage of the situation by maintaining a default "no daily housekeeping except by request" policy, which according to the Culinary Union is against the law.
- The Culinary Union's stated gripe, at least per the article, is not that 1/3 of its housekeepers are out of work. Rather, they say the problem is that those that are working must walk extra distances within the hotel, as the rooms that they service on a shift aren't in a row on a single floor, but are more spread out within the hotel. That sounds like a talking point to me, when the real issue is that the amount of workers employed, and thus paying union dues, is reduced by 1/3.
This issue is somewhat local to Nevada. Most cities in the US West are non-union for the most part. Las Vegas is a notable exception, where certain unions, including the Culinary Union, have a surprising amount of influence. This may not be uncommon in the eastern US, but it's rare in the west. Also, with the exception of this particular protest covered in the article, this issue doesn't seem to be having much impact.
