Emeryville to probe workers' treatment
Stephanie Secrest | East Bay Business Times
Protesters picket near the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville.
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The city of Emeryville will investigate whether Woodfin Suites Hotel retaliated against immigrant workers who complained that their employer was not following the city's living-wage ordinance.
The city has passed an emergency ordinance saying its four hotels cannot fire or put on forced leave workers who file administrative complaints against their employers without giving the city the chance to investigate first. At its next city council meeting, Jan. 16, the city will outline regulations concerning how such complaints might be heard.
The move is the latest attempt by a municipality to ensure enforcement of a living-wage ordinance and to give citizens administrative recourse when employers don't step up to the plate.
"Most cities don't have a lot of capacity to enforce living-wage ordinances," said Jason Oringer, a researcher from the hotel union UNITE HERE. "And when an employer is acting in bad faith, it is hard for workers to find out that there is an ordinance, particularly if they are not native English speakers."
While many cities have included anti-retaliatory language in their measures, some, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, have taken steps to make it possible for employees to come forward with complaints.
Cities differ in their approach, with San Francisco among the most aggressive when it comes to employee rights. San Francisco, which has its own labor arm, presumes in its ordinances governing minimum wage and paid sick leave that an employer's action is retaliatory if it is taken within 90 days of a worker's complaint.
San Francisco fined the Golden Dragon restaurant in Chinatown $1 million in October for not following its minimum wage law.
The enforcement issue in Emeryville came to a head in late December after Woodfin placed 21 immigrant workers on administrative leave saying it had received no-match letters from the Social Security Administration - notification that names and Social Security numbers submitted for W-2 reports do not match agency records.
"We have an obligation to operate our business in a legal fashion, which includes not having illegal people on our payroll," said Hugh MacIntosh, general manager at Woodfin. He added he welcomed the city's hearing, since so far nobody has told the hotel it isn't in compliance with the measure.
The hotel had separately filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Emeryville challenging the living-wage ordinance, but it was dismissed Jan. 9. by U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong.
The workers, along with their organizers at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, charged that employees were being targeted for their advocacy under the living-wage law. Twelve of them had previously filed complaints against Woodfin with the city over wages.
They're also arguing as much in Alameda County Superior Court, with the next hearing in the ongoing saga scheduled for Jan. 23. before Judge Bonnie Sabraw. An added wrinkle concerning how this battle plays centers on a proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Security regulation that says employers should fire employees who appear on no-match lists if they cannot resolve discrepancies.
At issue for the workers are job security and approximately $160,000 in back wages. Under Emeryville's living-wage law, the hotel could face penalties of $100 to $1,000 a day or, at worst, the revocation of its permit to operate.
Meanwhile, the Emeryville City Council faces pressure from the city's chamber of commerce, which views the alliance's organizing activities as harassment by an outsider group.
"EBASE has been frustrated because they have achieved their aims in Berkeley and Oakland, but they haven't here," said Bob Canter, Emeryville Chamber of Commerce CEO. "They don't like this prosperous little town of freedom."
Council members who opposed the living-wage law before it was adopted by ballot measure in November 2005 seem to be insisting on its enforcement.
"The Woodfin claims Measure C is invalid," said Ken Bukowski, an Emeryville City Council member. "Well, from the city's standpoint the law is valid until a court determines otherwise."
The provision to give the hotel a hearing differentiates the city's ordinance from those of cities like Hayward, which doesn't provide for an administrative process. Employees seeking relief under the ordinance basically have to file a private action, union leaders said.
As with the Emeryville case, workers at Cintas Corp. in San Leandro were put on leave because, the company said, they appeared on a no-match list.
Union officials here also complained that these same workers had previously sued Cintas under Hayward's living-wage law, which regulates city contractors. Cintas was a contractor of Hayward. There is a separate battle in San Leandro to pass a living-wage law.
The ordinance in Emeryville is different from Hayward's, since the Emeryville law regulates hotels that pay taxes to the city. Still, a city's intervention in either case could help avoid protracted litigation.
"In Hayward, workers filed suit against Cintas for back wages in summer 2003 and they haven't seen a cent," said Oringer, whose union organized the Cintas workers. "That is a long time for people to wait."
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