Newsom Vetoes Worker Protection Bill Despite Pleas From Local Hotel Workers

[Updated]  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have provided right-to-recall protections for some workers who have been laid off due to the pandemic.

AB 3216 would have applied to owners of hotels, private clubs, event centers, airport hospitality operations, airport service operations, janitorial services, building maintenance services, and security services. It would have also required successor employers in these industries to maintain a preferential hiring list of eligible employees identified by the employer.

In addition, the bill would have required employers to hire from that list for a period of six months after the change of control and retain eligible employees for a 90-day transition employment period, and offer continued employment.

Laid-off workers at Pasadena’s Langham Huntington Hotel hoping to get their jobs back were urging Newsom to sign the bill. A group of those workers twice caravanned to Sacramento to directly lobby the governor.

“The housekeepers, dishwashers, and cooks who led this fight are committed to upholding our democracy,” Ada Briceño, Susan Minato, and Kurt Petersen, co-presidents of UNITE HERE Local 11, said in a statement.

In his veto message, Newsom said “I recognize the real problem this bill is trying to fix — to ensure that workers who have been laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic have certainty about their rehiring and job security.” 

But the Governor said the bill was flawed.

“Tying the bill’s provisions to a state of emergency will create a confusing patchwork of requirements in different counties at different times,” Newsom’s message said.

Last July, the Pasadena City Council passed a local ordinance that mandates hotel workers to be rehired after the economic crisis passes. The city law includes a right-to-recall element for displaced workers and a worker-retention clause to protect employees in the event of a change in control of a hotel’s management.