Below is a press release I received concerning an unfair wage claim lawsuit being filed by Indianapolis hospitality workers:Indianapolis, IN:Hotel workers in Indianapolis filed a lawsuit in federal court today againstHospitality Staffing Solutions (HSS) and ten major hotels for wage and hourviolations. This landmark lawsuit is the broadest wage and hour case in thehistory of the Indianapolis hotel industry. If the lawsuit is certified as acollective action, eligible employees as a group could be entitled to as muchas ten million dollars in back pay. An action was held this morning in front ofHSS offices with hotel workers and community supporters in conjunction with thefiling of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed against HSS, a national subcontracting company based inAtlanta. HSS operates in almost every downtown Indianapolis hotel. The currentlawsuit also implicates the Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Place Airport, Marriottdowntown (LaSalle), JW Marriott (White Lodging), Westin (Host Hotels), Conrad(Kite Realty), Embassy Suites (Simon Property Group), Canterbury (TurnerWoodard), Holiday Inn Airport, and the Omni Hotel, all of which use HSS tosubcontract workers.
Thislawsuit is not the first time that HSS has stirred controversy. In 2010, HSSand the Hyatt Indianapolis were fined $50,000 by Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA) for record keeping and training violations. Two yearsago, hotel workers won a $20,000 from HSS and two Hyatt hotels in Pittsburghthrough a class action lawsuit.
Some may try to impugn this lawsuit and the attendant publicity as being part of a comprehensive strategy against the Right to Work legislation. It very well may be. Nonetheless, that does not mean the claims in the lawsuit do not have merit. I have personally talked to workers in the hospitality industry and have been told stories about their being ordered to do work off the clock, the movement of overtime hours to short weeks so the employer won't have to pay time and a half and waitresses and bartenders who are told to do non-tip work at subminimum ($2.13 an hour) wage. When I ran for Pike Township School Board, I was told by bus drivers and monitorsthey were often told to do runs off the clock and they fear they had of retaliation for complaining. Some tried talking to School Board members (including one supposed pro-worker member who immediately became pro-administation upon election) and they would not even look into the matter.Indianapolis city government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the downtown hospitality industry. While this city has rebuiltits economy with service industry jobs, hotel workers in Indianapolis are someof the lowest paid in the nation. Hotel workers here start at $7.25 per hourand are offered few or no benefits. Now, some of the hotels that the city haschosen to subsidize are being accused of illegal activity, of not even payingtheir employees the minimum wage. Meanwhile, these hotels are slated to makethree to four million dollars each during the week of the Super Bowl alone.During the Super Bowl, room rates in downtown hotels are expected to cost morethan $1000 per night.Workersin the lawsuit allege that HSS and area hotels regularly fail to pay them forall the hours they work and force them to work off the clock and withoutbreaks. In addition to wage and hour violations, the lawsuit also alleges thatcurrent contracts between hotel employers and HSS create an unfair monopolypower of HSS over hotel labor in Indianapolis. The federal Wage and HourDivision of the Department of Labor is currently investigating HSS practices inIndianapolis hotels.
“Everyday I was told by my Hyatt manager to come in to work early and work beforeclocking in, and forced to work through my breaks without being paid,"says Martha Gonzalez, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who used to work as a housekeeperat a Hyatt hotel through the HSS agency. "I am supporting my threechildren and often there was not enough money in my paycheck to pay forfood."
A debate over the Right to Work legislation and the value of unionization will be reserved for another time. Nonetheless, Indiana already has very strict wage laws in place. The failure to pay these employees their wages means the employers are subject to treble damages plus attorney's fees.
Our laws, however, are only so good as the public officials who enforce them. I have no doubt that these worker abuses have been raised before. Did public officials listen to their complaints and investigate them? We should not have gotten to the point of where a lawsuit needed to be filed. The law is clear. You cannot make people work off the clock. You have to pay them overtime. We taxpayers are subsidizing the hospitality industry to the tune of millions of dollars. Is it too much to ask that they follow the law?