Classify employees properly to avoid penalty
Operational developments
REPORT FROM THE U.S.—As the U.S. Department of Labor under administration is cracking down harder on violations, staying informed about employee misclassification is crucial for hotel operators if they want to avoid costly fines, according to employment attorneys.
Investigations conducted by the division’s Dallas District Office in 2011 found widespread violations, such as failing to accurately calculate hours worked at multiple job sites and paying housekeepers on a per-room basis without regard to hours worked or overtime, among others.
However classification is crucial to ensure employees are compensated fairly across the board.
Workers are not paid overtime if they are classified as independent contractors.
The classification of workers also dictates certain benefits employees are entitled to receive. In California, for example, full-time employees are entitled to paid meal breaks and unpaid rest breaks.
Investigations conducted by the division’s Dallas District Office in 2011 found widespread violations, such as failing to accurately calculate hours worked at multiple job sites and paying housekeepers on a per-room basis without regard to hours worked or overtime, among others.
However classification is crucial to ensure employees are compensated fairly across the board.
Workers are not paid overtime if they are classified as independent contractors.
The classification of workers also dictates certain benefits employees are entitled to receive. In California, for example, full-time employees are entitled to paid meal breaks and unpaid rest breaks.
Managerial
Unemployment, legislative issues still hinder recovery
Members of the View from the Top panel on the first day of The Lodging Conference sought to sort through the issues preventing the hotel industry from enjoying a full-fledged recovery, focusing on legislative issues and unemployment.
Top Ten Marketing and Hospitality Consultants, pointed frequently to federal policies that he feels are having a negative impact on business, while others pointed to the high unemployment rate and the lingering AIG affect as being barriers to recovery.
“It’s not complicated. People who don’t have jobs won’t travel,” said Steve Joyce, president and CEO of Choice Hotels International. “We need job creation and then leisure travelers will come back. The dip is directly related to the employment problem.”
Legislative issue
Ufi Ibrahim (Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association) and Graham Wason (Cut Tourism Vat Campaign Group) will be launching a campaign to reduce VAT on accommodation and attractions to 5% in order to improve the UK’s international competitiveness and increase revenue and employment for the UK economy. The launch will include the release of a new econometric study by Deloitte/Tourism Respect using HM Treasury’s Computable General Equilibrium Model. This study concludes that reducing VAT on accommodation and attractions is “one of the most efficient, if not the most efficient, means of generating GDP gains at low cost to the Exchequer that we have seen with the CGE model”
Graham Wason, Chairman, Campaign for Reduced Tourism VAT!!
MARKET TRENDS
- Watch Robert Mandelbaum's video as he overviews the results of PKF Hospitality Research's 76th annual Trends In The Hotel Industry survey. Hotel owners and operators are encouraged to participate in our Trends® survey.The 2012 Edition of Trends® contains 2011 data for the U.S. lodging industry.
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