“.. Senate Bill 432.. would create “new occupational safety and health standards for all hotels, motels and other similar transient lodging establishments in California…”
“.. It would mandate the “use of fitted sheets … on the bottom sheet on all beds” at such lodging. And it would mandate the “use of long-handled tools,” such as mops, to reduce stooping “to clean bathroom floors, walls, tubs, toilets and other bathroom surfaces…”
 “A 2009 report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine found that housekeepers have higher (7.87 per 100) injury rates than other hotel workers…”
The California Hotel & Lodging Association pointed out that the medical study didn’t even mention fitted sheets as culprit in the injuries. And it charged it would cost up to $50 million to replace the regular sheets with fitted sheets. Mr. Hayes said the high number is “a bunch of nonsense” and that Sen. De Leon and other legislators are working on the bill to “find a way to implement it without added costs,” within the hotels’ economic structure.
He said the major hotels are in favor of working for a compromise bill. But the association remains adamant against any bill. And he said that, as only about 10 percent of housekeepers are unionized, including the sheet rules in future contracts wouldn’t help much.
For more:Â http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-08-16/news/29897915_1_sheets-housekeepers-hotel-workers
