A new bill could remove one of the last protocols of the COVID-19 era and give hotel operators the right to end daily room cleaning.
On Tuesday, State Senator Marilyn Dondero Loop discussed Senate Bill 441, which would remove the requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services or other boards of health require certain protocols and plans related to COVID prevention and response. -19.
“We are not talking about not cleaning the rooms (every day); now there are laws in place that make it mandatory to clean and change clean sheets,” Billy Vassiliadis, representing the Nevada Resort Association, said in support of the bill during a hearing Tuesday. “It’s an option (customers have) not to do it.”
Before the pandemic, nearly half of Strip guests opted not to have their rooms cleaned daily, and guest satisfaction was at 90 percent, Vassiliadis said. Currently guests do not have the option to have their room cleaned daily.
“Unfortunately, due to SB4, Nevada remains locked into mandates that developed in the midst of a crisis,” said Virginia Valentine, president and CEO of the resort association.
Senate Bill 4 passed in a special session in August 2020 responding to COVID-19 requiring hotels to follow Department of Health and Human Services minimum cleaning standards in certain counties such as Clark and Washoe. It also gave the secretary of state the authority to suspend the state business license of anyone who failed to meet health standards.
“It worked then, but now it doesn’t,” Loop said during the hearing. “Given what we know now, we should free our hotel operators from the COVID-era restriction and allow them to return to the high standards of cleanliness they have used to meet and exceed expectations related to the safety of their guests.”
The Southern Nevada Health District, Washoe County Health District, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, Meruelo Group and the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce support the bill.
More benefits, less work
In Las Vegas, the hearing was broadcast from Carson City to a room in the Grant Sawyer Building that was packed with red-shirted Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members.
“The Culinary Union recognizes the need to repeal some of the provisions of SB4,” Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said at the hearing. “But (we) strongly oppose SB441 as it currently stands because the Culinary Union should protect guest room attendants and also daily housekeeping.”
Nevada casinos broke an all-time record with $14.8 billion in 2022 gambling winnings, according to previous reports.
“You’d think that with all these gains, it would create a lot more jobs for Nevadans,” Pappageorge said. “But in fact, the gaming industry is only providing as many jobs as it did in the mid-1990s.”
If SB441 passes, there could be worker layoffs, said Diana Valles, president of the Culinary Union. She said that 73 percent of room attendants are people of color. Those who keep their jobs will have to work harder, as the rooms will be dirtier for the single assistant assigned to clean the room.
“The daily cleaning of the rooms is also a security issue,” Valles said during the hearing. “We have heard reports of workers being attacked when they are alone on these floors.”
Room attendants get to know their guests, as they clean the rooms daily and can report anything they see to security, Valles said. He says that he has heard that the threat of another mass shooting is always on the minds of attendees.
“When an employee knocks on the door, they never know what’s behind it,” Valles explains. “He’s worried they’ll open the door and find a bunch of guns or worse.”
Nevada State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Nevada State Pipe Trades, Make the Road Nevada, the State of Nevada, and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada are among those who oppose SB 441.
