California Law Says Hotel Workers Must Use Mops – SB 432

The California State Senate recently passed SB 432 which will require hotels to provide housekeepers with long-handled mops in order to prevent workers from having to bend down to clean floors. It will also require hotels to provide fitted sheet to eliminate the need to lift mattresses while making beds. I wonder how they’ll tuck in the top sheet and blanket, maybe they're relying on more people to be like George Costanza and ask for a "no tuck".

I’m going to forgo sharing my feeling about the lawmakers of great state of California focusing on these matters rather than say, oh I don’t know... passing a budget (it’s JUNE!). Instead I’ll just be glad that we sell the “long-handled tools such as mops” the bill requires. Speaking of which, the best mop for hotel guest rooms and bathrooms has to be our Contour Microfiber Mop Tool along with our 10” Microfiber Mops. The Contour Tool will be great for California housekeepers because it will allow them to thoroughly clean bathroom floors, around and up the sides of toilets and it will even follow the contours inside a bathtub. It’s a really unique cleaning tool with a flexible base.

Another great choice for SB 432 Compliance is our bathroom mop, okay… it’s our Wall Wash Mop Tool, but it’s a great size for bathrooms too! You don’t want too big of a mop when cleaning restrooms because you need something small enough to maneuver around sinks and toilets.

Forget politicians micromanaging, executive housekeepers should already be supplying these to their workers if only because they’ll clean more thoroughly and more quickly.

Here’s a copy of SB 432:

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 6714 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
   6714.  (a) The standards board shall, no later than September 1,
2012, adopt an occupational safety and health standard for lodging
establishment housekeeping. The standard shall apply to all hotels,
motels, and other lodging establishments in California. The standard
shall require all of the following:
   (1) The use of a fitted sheet, instead of a flat sheet, as the
bottom sheet on all beds within the lodging establishment. For the
purpose of this section, a "fitted sheet" means a bed sheet
containing elastic or similar material sewn into each of the four
corners that allows the sheet to stay in place over the mattress.
   (2) The use of long-handled tools such as mops or similar devices
in order to eliminate the practice by housekeepers of working in a
stooped, kneeling, or squatting position in order to clean bathroom
floors, walls, tubs, toilets, and other bathroom surfaces.
   (b) The standard established pursuant to this section is not
subject to a permanent variance pursuant to Section 143.
  SEC. 2.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.