Laid-Off Hotel Workers Get Priority

Santa Monica hotel workers who lose their jobs in the economic slump must be rehired ahead of new recruits once the economy improves, under an ordinance approved by the City Council on Tuesday night.

About 300 employees in the city’s tourist area have been laid off since the September attacks and drop-off in travel.

The ordinance, approved on a 4-3 vote despite strong business opposition, affects firms doing $5 million or more a year in business in the coastal and downtown zones. It requires workers to be rehired in the order they were laid off before any new workers can fill the jobs.

“This is the best thing that’s happened to workers in this country since Sept. 11,” said Kurt Petersen, an official of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which pressed for the ordinance. Petersen said the rehire law is the only one he knows of in the United States.