Protesters march from Sheraton Hotel to the Holiday Inn Hotel near Broadway in downtown Nashville (photo by Justin Darden).
A group of housekeepers gathered in the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Nashville to announce a major development in the continuing protests over the issue of wage theft before a crowd of media reporters and community members on January 3.
Employees of the Sheraton Hotel spoke to a group of local media reporters and community members to announce that they were successful in recovering the full wages they were seeking since August 2014.
The news conference came after the workers announced they were preparing to file a federal lawsuit against the Sheraton Hotel for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Workers decided to file a lawsuit after hotel management refused to give them the wages they were looking for accusing them of violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
In addition to filing the lawsuit, the workers continued their protest by having a protest outside the Sheraton on January 3. After announcing plans to file the federal lawsuit, the owner of the Sheraton Hotel, JRK Property Holdings, reached a settlement with the workers. Nashville attorney Chuck Yezbak said in a press release that employing workers and paying them is the responsibility of the hotels.
“Simply labeling someone a contractor doesn’t get you a free pass,” said Yezbak. “Courts look at the economic realities to decide who ‘unpaid’ wages. A worker can have more than one employer under the law.”
Housekeepers said that they are hired by the hotels and receive benefit package, which improved the wages and benefits for 75 workers at an estimated $234,000 yearly.
