City leaders are showing support for beefing up on-the-job protections for many of Irvine’s hotel workers, including requiring safety precautions and limits on workloads.

While similar laws are being seen more throughout Southern California, Irvine would be the first in Orange County with an ordinance of this kind if the City Council finalizes it with a second required vote at an upcoming meeting. The new rules would require hotels larger than 44 rooms to give their employees panic buttons and it would establish limits on the maximum square footage housekeepers could be asked to clean in a day.

Similar laws have been enacted in recent years in Long Beach, Glendale and Los Angeles. In Laguna Beach, voters on Nov. 8 are set to decide on a measure that would have similar job-protection requirements, as well as require an $18 minimum wage for hotel employees. And in Anaheim, language for two similar proposed initiatives have been submitted for likely the 2024 ballot.

Irvine Councilwoman Tammy Kim said she had been growing concerned over the safety of hotel workers in the city after listening to their stories of on-the-job harassment and instances of existing panic buttons failing.

She felt an ordinance establishing some standards was needed, putting it before her colleagues, she said, after “realizing that there was absolutely no codification when it came to how they use these (panic button) devices, how workers were trained, how hoteliers were trained, and how they were...

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