Layoffs Of 850 Marriott Marquis Workers Probed By State AG

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The state's top law enforcement officer is investigating whether the Marriott Marquis broke labor laws when it laid off hundreds of workers from its flagship hotel last year, escalating a labor dispute that began in the midst of the pandemic.

Last March, 852 employees were furloughed from the nearly 2,000-room Times Square hotel as the coronavirus took hold in the city and hotels temporarily shut their doors. In December, they learned that they would be permanently let go by March 2021.

In the intervening months, however, hotel management rewrote employees' severance packages to limit the pay they would receive, the workers claim. Management then replaced the employees with outsourced workers, contradicting claims that their jobs had been eliminated.

In protest, the employees took to Times Square shortly before Christmas, demanding better severance and the right to be rehired if their jobs returned.

Now, New York Attorney General Letitia James's office is "looking into the matter," a spokesperson confirmed to Patch this week.

The spokesperson could not say what possible violations were being investigated. An attorney representing more than 200 of the laid-off workers, however, told Patch that the investigation could center on a host of alleged infractions, including the reduced severance and outsourced work.

"They understand that this is one of the hardest-hit industries," lawyer Richard Corenthal said of his clients. "But what they don’t understand is the breach of promises that they would be treated fairly."

Another of the workers' chief claims is that Marriott is making its offer of COBRA health insurance — a federal program requiring continuing coverage for the unemployed — contingent on accepting the smaller severance packages.

Holding health insurance "hostage" to the severance agreement would break federal law, argued Corenthal, who is himself a former assistant state attorney general.

Other complaints include that Marriott has failed to pay out workers' earned vacation time, as is required by state law.

Reached for comment, a Marquis spokesperson said: "We are aware of this, and are in direct communication with the Attorney General’s office."

"It was a good job"

The Marquis layoffs centered on food and beverage workers, including kitchen staff, bartenders and waiters at the hotel's revolving rooftop restaurant.

"It was a good job. I was quite happy," Brian Richards, who spent 32 years as a waiter at the restaurant, told Patch in December.

The 852 non-union workers said their severance packages had previously mirrored those at unionized hotels, where employees were entitled to a week of pay for each year of service. Shortly before their layoffs, the Marquis capped severance at just 10 weeks, the workers said.

"Everybody's hurting, the whole city's hurting," Shawn Williams, a 21-year chef at the Marquis, told Patch last year. "But just give us a decent severance — that's all we ask."

A Marquis spokesperson said at the time that the hotel had maintained health coverage for the workers during their furloughs, and "will continue to do so through their separation date."

One of the workers' main demands has been "right of recall," a law enacted in some cities that require employers to rehire former workers if their jobs come back. (Last month, flanked by Marquis workers, City Councilmember Brad Lander introduced a bill that would institute the policy at the city level.)

Meanwhile, hundreds of remaining workers who kept their jobs at the Marquis voted to unionize in January, a precedent-setting event for the city's largest hotel.

Corenthal is representing the former workers in talks with Marriott, hoping to win better severance — or, in an ideal world, to get them rehired to their old positions.

"The workers would like most to go back to work," he said. "They really value their jobs."

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