Jamie McGee

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Until earlier this year, Diana Lopez was a housekeeper at a high-end Nashville hotel. After vacuuming hallways, cleaning windows and making dozens of beds for $8.75 an hour, she would go to her second job at a Mexican restaurant, working 15- to 18-hour days to make ends meet.

“Hotel work is very hard work,” said Lopez, a mother of two children. “The pay is extremely low.”

Nashville’s hotel industry is booming, but many workers in the hospitality sector are not feeling the upside. Lopez joined a group of hospitality workers Monday evening who gathered outside the $120 million Westin Hotel site to speak out against workplace conditions, lack of sick leave and meager wages.

Hotel workers get unpaid wages after year-long effort

More than half of hotel workers were denied sick days, both paid and unpaid, and only 17 percent had access to paid sick days. One of four workers did not get breaks during their workdays, according to a report by Vanderbilt University researchers and Workers’ Dignity, a Nashville nonprofit focused on work issues affecting low-wage workers.

“We didn’t have right to get sick because we could lose our jobs,” Lopez said. “We would often show up to work sick or do whatever you have to do because that was what was asked of us.”

The working conditions highlighted by the report are a stark contrast to the economic gains for developers and hotel operators in Nashville’s prospering hospitality sector. Twelve hotels are under construction with more than 55 planned for the area. While that has translated to more jobs, it has not improved workplace conditions, according to Workers’ Dignity.

Workers’ Dignity argues that given the millions of dollars in tax increment financing from the city, the hotels should be held to higher standards when it comes to workers' rights.

The report is based on surveys from 52 local workers. It found that 89 percent of workers do not receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week, and 18 percent made less than the $7.25 minimum wage. All workers surveyed made less than the city’s livable wage.

Workplace safety has fallen short at local hotels, the researchers said. Nearly 40 percent of workers do not receive training on safety and on using toxic cleaning supplies. Nearly 80 percent who were injured while working did not have access to emergency medical care.

"Hospitality workers are very high risk for getting injuries and illnesses on the job," said Heather O'Hara, Meharry Medical College's program director for Occupational and Preventative Medicine Residencies.

Tristan Call, a Vanderbilt Ph.D. candidate who worked on the study, estimated there are as many as 3,000 housekeepers at area hotels.

One housekeeper reported carrying laundry up and down several flights of stairs because they were not allowed on elevators with guests. Another worker reported being denied a clinic visit after being burned by boiling water.

At the gathering, Angela Munoz, who worked in housekeeping, described workers who expected to end shifts at 4 p.m. but were assigned more rooms. They were unable to return to families until 8 or 9 p.m.

Workers’ Dignity outlined a list of recommendations for hotel operators and city officials, including making public financing contingent on complying with the workers' “Bill of Rights.” Those rights include two weeks paid sick days, 45 days maternity leave, a starting wage of $15 an hour and overtime pay for all work that exceeds 40 hours per week. Additionally, the group asked for at least one 15-minute work break and a 30-minute lunch break for those working more than six hours in a day.

Part of the issue is how the workers are hired, typically through staffing agencies, which deflects responsibility from the hotels. In August a group of workers recovered unpaid wages from local hotels after an agency failed to pay them. In 2015 a group of housekeepers at Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel won a wage dispute, which Sheraton said was its labor contractors' responsibility. The hotel agreed to pay the unpaid wages.

Reach Jamie McGee at 615-259-8071 and on Twitter @JamieMcGee_.

Report's findings

• 18 percent make less than $7.25 per hour minimum wage.

• Average housekeeper wage is $8.36 per hour.

• 89 percent working more than 40 hours a week did not receive overtime pay.

• Of those who were injured on the job, 79 percent were denied emergency care.

• 26 percent did not get breaks during their workday.

• 17 percent received paid sick days.

• 51 percent said they were not allowed to take sick days, paid or unpaid.

Source: Workers' Dignity