NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- A new bill in New York City Council reportedly could help out-of-work hotel employees by making owners pay them severance.
According to the New York Daily News, Councilman Francisco Moya is looking at hotels with 75% or more workers unemployed, or where more than 50% of rooms aren’t being used.
The bill would order hotel owners to pay those employees $500 for 15 weeks, and then $1,000 for the following 15 weeks.
“This bill will give workers at closed hotels a little financial cushion to help put food on the table, while incentivizing hotels to reopen,” tweeted Hotel Trades Council President Rich Maroko, the union for hotel and gaming workers in New York and parts of New Jersey.
The bill would reportedly apply to employees at 40 hotels and would retroactively aid those eligible to the first day federal pandemic benefits ended.
A hotel is still closed if it had to shuttered during the pandemic and didn’t end up bringing back 75% or more of its staff once it reopened.
Moya told The Daily News the bill is also aimed at helping pick up New York City’s tourism.
A comptroller report from earlier this year said weak tourism during the pandemic cost the city over $1 billion, while nearly 90,000 tourism jobs were lost.
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