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CITY MANAGER ISSUES WOODFIN DECISION; ISSUES REMAIN

John VanLandingham
The Emeryville Connection Staff
July 2007

The standoff continues between Emeryville city officials and the Woodfin Suites hotel over back wages the city says hotel workers are owed under Measure C. A hotel spokesman said that City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe’s order to repay the wages and penalties will be appealed to the City Council.

“We are enormously disappointed in the city’s assertion that we are not in compliance. We will file an appeal to the (council) by midnight Thursday,” Eric Schellhorn, a spokesman for Woodfin, said Tuesday June 26.

O’Keeffe in mid-June ordered the hotel to pay about $125,000 in back wages to several dozen immigrant housekeepers and pays $31,500 in penalties that city officials say are due the workers under so-called “living-wage” measure approved by Emeryville voters in November, 2005.

Failure to comply could cost the hotel chain its permit to operate in Emeryville, according to a letter from O’Keeffe to hotel officials.

Woodfin General Manager Hugh MacIntosh told the City Council at its June 19 meeting that he interpreted the deadline for reply as July 2, a week beyond the city‘s deadline. City Attorney Michael Biddle said that MacIntosh was incorrect.

O’Keeffe said he had just received an e-mail notification from Woodfin saying it would appeal his order to the City Council. Although he believed the earliest it could go to the council would be July 17, he said he would confer with the city attorney.

Immigrant workers, fired by Woodfin in April, have been appearing regularly at the City Council meetings asking that the council enforce Measure C and apply pressure to have them reinstated. Councilmembers have generally expressed sympathy for the workers’ cause.

MacIntosh has told the council at previous meetings that the hotel management repeatedly asked the workers for documentation confirming their eligibility to work in the United States and that the workers never complied. Finally, he said, the hotel had to terminate them because to keep them on the payroll would be illegal.

The workers and their children, during appearances before the council, have characterized the hotel’s actions as retaliation for their demands to be paid higher wages under the provisions of Measure C.

Pushed by the Oakland-based Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 2850, Measure C requires hotels with more than 50 guest rooms to pay all employees a minimum wage of $9 per hour and an average wage of $11.

Any hotel worker who cleans more than 5,000 square feet of floor space must be paid overtime. Hotel workers who complain or demand employee rights cannot be fired for doing so. Last December, the council adopted an emergency ordinance protecting hotel workers from retaliation for alleging that their work hours were scaled back in violation of Measure C.

In March, Woodfin sued the city in federal court, alleging that Measure C forces its management to violate federal laws and risk fines and other penalties by keeping illegal immigrants on the payroll.

In their order to Woodfin to reimburse workers for back wages, city officials said they computed the costs from records obtained from the hotel.

Woodfin must before the end of July meet these demands:

• Pay back wages to 58 housekeepers.

• Compensate workers placed on unpaid leave status despite city orders during its investigation.

• Pay $31,500 for failing to provide copies of certain records in a timely fashion or not at all.

• Pay $12,125 for an annual permit fee for time spent by the city to process the application.

• Pay an annual enforcement fee for time the city spent investigating previous violations. Woodfin would pay for most of the investigation when it applies for a permit next year.

John VanLandinham is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com