Urgent Restaurant/Hotel Legislation That Will Destroy Businesses

URGENT. PLEASE READ IF YOU OPERATE RESTAURANTS, BARS OR CLUBS IN HOTELS.

The NYC Hospitality Alliance is writing about an urgent matter concerning legislation introduced in the City Council affecting third-party food & beverage companies that operate restaurants, bars, and clubs in NYC hotels. 

OVERVIEW OF WHAT THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION DOES: While the legislation has many parts affecting different stakeholders, the NYC Hospitality Alliance is primarily focused on a provision that would have severe consequences for restaurant, bar, and nightclub companies that run food & beverage operations in hotels via a lease and/or management agreement. If enacted into law, this legislation will essentially terminate countless leases and management agreements as they’re structured between third-party food & beverage companies and the hotels in which they operate. 

As drafted, the proposed legislation requires that if the public may enter a food & beverage establishment from within a hotel, and/or if the food & beverage operator enters hotel rooms (i.e. conducts room service), the hotel must directly employ the workers of the food & beverage establishment(s). That means, a third-party run restaurant that can be accessed via a door in the hotel lobby, a lobby bar operated by a third-party food & beverage company, a third-party operated rooftop bar accessed by an elevator within a hotel, all would NOT be allowed to employ the establishments’ workers. The law would require the hotel to directly employ the establishments workers. While there are other provisions and complexities to the legislation (including publicly reporting employee wages, minimum staffing levels, collective bargaining agreement considerations, and more aspects governing the hotel operators) this is a high-level overview of the provision with the most direct effect on third-party food & beverage operators in hotels that the NYC Hospitality Alliance represent. You may CLICK HERE to read the full proposed legislative text.

If enacted into law, this legislation will create chaos, complex litigation between third-party food & beverage companies, hotels, and government. It would put many restaurants and bars out of business and people they employ out of work. It would be devastating for NYC’s hotel restaurant and bar sector, and economy.

WE NEED YOU TO TAKE ACTION: The City Council scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday, July 30th beginning at 10:00AM at City Hall. We NEED you to attend the hearing and testify in-person to explain how this legislation as drafted will destroy your business(es). If you’re unable to testify in person, you must submit written testimony.  

• Please email info@thenycalliance.org and let us know if you will testify in person or submit written testimony, and we’ll provide additional details and instructions. 

It’s unacceptable that the City Council would introduce such devastating legislation and quickly schedule a hearing to try to rush it through in the middle of the summer. So we must show up. 

Please respond quickly to the email about getting involved. Please share this with other concerned parties as we need all hands-on deck.

 Thank you for your prompt attention.