Washington, DC Hotels & Lodging: Hotel Worker Retention (2026)

C. Code § 32-101 covers contractor-hired food service workers in hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, apartment buildings, hospitals and nursing facilities, plus janitorial/building-maintenance, nonprofessional health-care-support and security workers, as long as they work 15+ hours a week and are not exempt executive/administrative/professional employees under FLSA § 13(a)(1). A "contractor" is defined as an entity employing 25 or more persons. Under § 32-102, the outgoing contractor must give prospective successors, within 10 days of a new contract award, the names, hire dates and job classifications of all covered employees at the site.

The new contractor must then retain, for a 90-day transition employment period, any covered employee who worked for the prior contractor for 8 months or longer at that site. If fewer workers are needed than before, retention follows seniority within job classification, and the new contractor must keep a preferential hiring list of employees not initially retained. During the 90 days the new contractor cannot discharge a retained worker without cause, and at the end of the period must give each retained employee a written performance evaluation, offering continued employment if performance was satisfactory.

If a contractor loses a District contract but wins a similar one elsewhere in the District within 30 days, it must retain at least 50% of the employees from each site as needed to staff the new contract. C. Law 10-105.