Workers allege have not been paid for “off the clock” work, miss rest breaks

Last week, a housekeeping worker at Cameo Beverly Hills, which is located in the city of Los Angeles, filed a complaint with the California Labor Commissioner alleging that the company has failed to pay workers for significant work they have performed “off the clock” and that workers have not been provided legally required rest breaks. The Cameo Beverly Hills is owned by Braemar Hotels & Resorts and operated by Remington.

The complaint alleges that housekeeping workers at Cameo, a boutique hotel advertising itself as “exuding tranquility and retreat,” have regularly arrived early for their shifts and performed work before punching in, including preparing their carts for the hard day of cleaning and changing into their uniforms. The complaint further alleges that management has been aware of workers performing work off the clock, and that it has improperly failed to pay workers the legally required compensation.

In addition, the complaint alleges that workers are often unable to take their ten-minute breaks because they have too many rooms to clean in a day and must rush to finish, and that they have not been paid for these missed breaks. California law requires employers to pay employees for all hours worked, and to pay employees overtime if employees work more than eight hours in a day. California law also requires employers to authorize and permit employees to take two ten-minute breaks in an eight-hour shift, and to pay penalties if they fail to do so.

“It is not fair that we perform work for free and can’t take our rest breaks. We work hard to clean this hotel and keep standards high for our guests. We are proud to be unionized, and we demand a higher standard for us as workers too,” said Raquel Lezama, Union shop steward and lobby attendant at Cameo.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports

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