The fired restaurant workers at Hotel Figueroa file a complaint

Two days after the food service operator of a trendy downtown hotel closed its restaurants and laid off its food and beverage employees, a new outside management company moved in and hired a slew of new employees, according to a complaint filed with the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

The laid-off food and beverage workers had tried to unionize months earlier. They claim Hotel Figueroa and hotel operator Botanical Group barred them from hiring, potentially violating a city “right of return” law that requires new hotel owners or new operators to retain the site's employees for a transition period, they say in the complaint.

A February. Letter No. 21 addressed to the public prosecutor's office asks for an investigation. A spokesman for the office confirmed receipt of the complaint but declined to comment further on the matter.

“The company closed without retaining workers, violating the recall law,” said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which is supporting hotel workers in their efforts. “It is beyond outrageous to see how wealthy companies… treat their long-term employees as if they were disposable.”

The hotel disputes the premise of the workers' complaint.

In a prepared statement, a spokesperson for Hotel Figueroa said its owner is acting “in accordance” with the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Retention Ordinance, which requires new hotel owners or operators to retain the location's employees for a transition period. The 2006 order initially only applied to hotels in the LAX corridor. In 2022, a new Hotel Employee Protection Ordinance extended the existing law to all city hotels with more than 50 guest rooms.

The employment regulation is intended to protect laid-off hotel employees so that if there is a change of control at a hotel, the subsequent hotel employer is obliged to hire previous employees for a transition period of 90 days and is not allowed to dismiss these employees without giving reasons.

Hotel Figueroa's spokesperson said there is no new food and beverage operator, but is instead working with a “consultant to offer limited F&B.” [food and beverage] Service.” Several former employees of the former third-party management group have returned to the hotel's dining operations, she said, and they expect more to return in the next few weeks.

Asked how many non-managerial employees had been rehired, the spokesman said the company would not comment further.

The Botanical Group did not respond to emails and messages seeking comment.

The 2006 withholding order was drafted in response to mass layoffs in 2000 at a Wyndham hotel near LAX. The hotel will be closed and more than 200 employees will be laid off. The hotel reopened about a year later as the Radisson Hotel LAX, but did not hire all of the former Wyndham employees, although more than 100 of them submitted applications.

Since then, the law has been invoked a few times, said Maria Hernandez, a spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 11.

On a recent Friday afternoon, a bartender at the reopened Bar Magnolia said he and the other bartenders in attendance, as well as other non-management employees, were new to the job. The space that once housed Sparrow Italia, which served coastal Italian dishes and cocktails in an indoor-outdoor setting, remained closed.

A dishwasher, front line cook and prep cook previously interviewed about Hotel Figueroa also said they were fired and not rehired by the new operator.

The workers tried to organize themselves

According to workers and union organizers who spoke to The Times, tensions between the former hotel group Noble 33 and its employees at Hotel Figueroa began shortly after third-party management took over the hotel's food and beverage operations in 2021.

Workers said they were forced to take on multiple roles without higher pay as their colleagues left the company and management failed to fill positions.

Dec. 10, 8 Food and beverage workers who worked for Noble 33 notified their management that they intended to form a union and submitted cards to do so.

Six days later, hotel operator Noble 33 announced that it would close Sparrow Italia, Café Fig, Bar Magnolia, the cafeteria and La Casita at Driftwood in the iconic hotel, a historic building in downtown LA that has been built for the past two decades has built a large following for its Mediterranean-inspired space and stylish dining rooms.

Noble 33 continued the closing. February 10th. 11, the company laid off an estimated 100 non-executive employees and closed the Hotel Figueroa restaurants.

Maria Ibarra, a chef for Noble 33 at the hotel, said she was fired and not rehired. Now she is threatened with unemployment.

“The owners thought they could just replace us overnight and we would give up and walk away,” Ibarra said. “My colleagues and I will not do that. “We have rights.”

Wednesday, Unite Here Local 11, workers and religious leaders called for a boycott of the hotel and hospitality group at a morning news conference outside the Hotel Figueroa.

The group also submitted a letter signed by nearly 500 people calling on the hotel to bring back the laid-off workers.

“We call on you to immediately offer the workers to return to their jobs at the hotel and compensate them for the time missed,” the letter said.

The boycott is just the latest move by workers and the union.

Nearly 40 people were picked up at the Hotel Figueroa on Friday – seven of them hotel housekeepers and about 30 community members and religious leaders from Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, a religious advocacy group based near downtown. They shouted “Bring her back” and held a sign that said “Bring back the Fig 100.”