![]() ![]() Since 2013, New York City housekeepers in all unionized hotels - hundreds of properties across the city - have been equipped with panic buttons that summon help. In addition to federal law that bars sexual harassment, state and local laws may apply-and may result in much bigger awards for successful plaintiffs. “The employer is responsible for having a harassment-free workplace, even if the harassment is coming from a customer or client,” said EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum. And management’s responsibility is likely to be an issue in collective bargaining next year, when contracts covering roughly half the unionized hotel workers across the country are up for re-negotiation. Workers’ advocates have been pushing hotels to equip housekeepers with “panic buttons” to protect them from guests. A California court in October ruled that a hotel worker could sue her employer under state law after she was allegedly raped by a trespasser on the property. “They feel they have a right to the lady who cleans the room.” Hotels are under new scrutiny when it comes to keeping their employees safe at work, even when the threat don’t come from other workers. ![]() She says a former employer took more than 20 minutes to respond after she alerted them that a man exposed himself to her in a hallway. “We don’t know if the predators are there,” said Juana Melara, a room attendant in Long Beach, Calif. The cases getting most attention so far have described abuses suffered by educated professionals the experiences of low-wage, service industry workers haven’t triggered the same outcry. Stories like Dar’s are newly resonant as a wide swath of industries are confronting the powerful men who harass and abuse women at work. “If we receive an allegation of inappropriate conduct, we take it very seriously and take appropriate responsive action,” he said. Jeff Flaherty, the senior director of global communications for Westin parent company Marriott International, declined to comment on Dar’s experiences, but said the company has zero tolerance for harassment. But she goes to work each day worried about what a customer might try to do: “I don’t trust any of the guests,” she said. because the pay and health benefits beat the alternatives. A 60-year-old immigrant from the Philippines, she’s worked at the same Seattle hotel for most of her time in the U.S. In 17 years as a hotel housekeeper, Dar has been propositioned and pursued, and leered at by guests too many times to count. ![]()
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