Tuesday, May 03, 2011

California Finds Something Else to Regulate

On a hat tip from Overlawyered, a bill has been introduced in California to help provide for a safer lodging workplace.

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.
Is there no portion of the American business landscape that some unfortunately elected fop hasn't decided that he can run more efficiently and more effectively himself?

I've got news for California State Senator De León, if you show me a toilet that has been cleaned without effort of "stooping, kneeling, or squatting" I will show you a toilet that is teeming with bacteria and unfit for Mr. De León's backside to utilize.

Realistically, how are housekeepers even supposed to clean underneath the toilet seat if they cannot even stoop to lift the lid?

When a state believes it has the wisdom and wherewithal to regulate even the proper cleaning of toilets down at the local Super8, it is clearly engaged in systematic overreach.

California is billions of dollars in debt, pining for another federal bailout, driving thousands of employers out of the state every year over the high cost of doing business, and abjectly delusional when it comes to getting its expenses or revenues in line.

If this is any indication, it hasn't even started trying to figure it out.

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