Vegna News: Lodge homeowners sue NYC over new regulation requiring severance for employees
By PATRICK CLAWSON
October 26, 2021
A gaggle of New York Metropolis resort homeowners is suing town over a brand new regulation requiring them to pay employees severance advantages in the event that they have been fired beneath circumstances associated to the pandemic.
The lawsuit, which was filed Friday by the Lodge Affiliation of New York Metropolis in Manhattan federal court docket, alleges that the regulation, which Mayor de Blasio signed off on Tuesday, makes an attempt to supersede already current federal regulation on worker profit plans.
The town regulation, which fits into impact Monday, requires that lodges with greater than 100 rooms pay $500 per week to out-of-work staff for not less than six months if the resort has fired greater than 75% of its staff throughout the pandemic.
“That is including salt to the injuries of an business that’s already battered,” mentioned the Lodge Affiliation President Vijay Dandapani. “We’re sympathetic, however homeowners don’t have interminably deep pockets.”
Dandapani argued that whereas the brand new regulation will assist some unemployed employees within the quick time period, it’s going to cripple the business over the long run and can finally harm the unionized service employees it’s designed to assist.
He famous that over the past 12 months, resort occupancy within the metropolis averages out to about 40% — an enchancment from the 14% occupancy price the business witnessed within the early weeks of the pandemic — however a far cry from what homeowners wish to see.
“Accommodations aren’t closed as a result of they wish to be closed,” he mentioned. “There’s merely no enterprise.”
The Lodge Affiliation notes that earlier than being signed into regulation, the brand new severance provisions flew via the Metropolis Council’s approval course of — “circumventing the usual technique of debate and deliberation typical for a invoice of this magnitude” — and that they imply resort homeowners will now must put aside “thousands and thousands of {dollars} in reserves.”