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byline: Joe Dodson | Capital News Service

Hotel workers must complete anti-human trafficking training

RICHMOND, Va. — After a few lawmakers missed time during the session due to COVID-19, Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, said she was thrilled to see all 100 members of the House unanimously pass a bill requiring hotels to provide human trafficking training for employees.

“It was really exciting for me to watch the vote because I didn’t know how it was going to go,” Simonds said. “We haven’t had 100 to zero very often.”

House Bill 258 will authorize the Department of Criminal Justice Services to create a free online mandatory course to help hotel employees better recognize and report human trafficking. After passing through the House in February it passed the Senate 36-4 on March 11.

Anyone employed by a hotel as of July 1 has to complete the required training course by Dec. 31.

In a survey conducted by the Polaris Project, 75% of human trafficking survivors reported coming into contact with hotels at some point during their trafficking situation. The Polaris Project collects data on and works to combat human trafficking, in addition to maintaining the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Robert Melvin, director of government affairs for the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association, said that organizations like the Polaris Project have helped to develop onboard training courses for major brands like Marriott International and Hilton Hotels.

The hospitality industry has made combating human trafficking a priority, Melvin said.

“It’s something that we take very seriously,” Melvin said. “We’ve worked really hard to curtail on our own as an industry.”

A provision in the bill states that hotel employees can use alternative online or in-person training courses like those already required by major brands, if approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Simonds said that the bill will help raise all hotels to the standards of those with training courses already in place.

“I think that there are smaller hotels that aren’t part of these large chains that need support and need a way for their employees to complete this training,” Simonds said.

The Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association worked with Simonds to create a provision that expedites the process of getting major brands current training courses approved by the DCJS, according to Melvin.

DCJS would need to approve or disapprove the use of an alternative course within 60 days of it being submitted for approval, according to the final version of the bill.

The bill could also help smaller hotel owners become part of larger brands quicker by already having the standard of human trafficking training courses required for employees throughout the state, Simonds said.

“In order to move up and become a Holiday Inn you need to show that you do have certain standards,” Simonds said. “This is going to lift up the standards for everyone in the hotel industry.”

Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, asked Simonds in a Senate committee hearing if hotel proprietors would have to pay any cost to the DCJS. Lawmakers substituted the bill to state that it would be free for hotel owners and their employees to take the course.

Simonds proposed almost $233,000 each year for the next two years in the budget to implement an online training platform. General Assembly members return next week to approve the final budget.

Questions were raised during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about which employees would be required to complete the training. Simonds added a substitute to restrict the required training to public facing employees, including housekeepers, bartending staff and management.

“Training housekeepers could be the most important part of this bill,” Simonds said. “Because they see things.”

An estimated 1,500 hotels and over 116,000 hotel employees would be subject to the requirements, according to the bill’s impact statement.

Despite the substitutions, the bill still serves its purpose of empowering bystanders to report human trafficking, Simonds said. She said she hopes to pass similar legislation next session focused on short-term rental properties like Airbnb and Vrbo.

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.

Lawmakers debate human trafficking bill

RICHMOND, Va. — Legislators raised a few questions with a measure that would deploy hotel staff to help combat human trafficking.

The bill introduced by Del. Shelly A. Simonds, D-Newport News, was heard Thursday in a House subcommittee.

House Bill 258 would authorize the Department of Criminal Justice Services to create an online mandatory course to help hotel employees better recognize and report human trafficking.

The bill would require employees to complete the training within six months of employment and become recertified once every two years. Simonds worked with representatives of the hospitality industry to clarify that staff employed when the bill goes into effect will need to complete training by the end of the year.

“Our friends in law enforcement need folks in hospitality and everyone in the community to help combat this horrible problem,” Simonds said to the panel.

Committee chair Del. William Wampler, R-Washington, asked to revisit the bill after questions were raised.

Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, requested that an attorney look over the bill to determine whether the word hotel also encompasses motels, lodges and campgrounds, or if the bill should identify each individual lodging term.

Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Hopewell, echoed Brewer’s sentiment and asked if the bill could be amended to allow employees up to a year upon start of employment to complete the training rather than the proposed six months. Coyner said giving employees a year will help from having too many people cycling through the training at once due to staff turnover.

Coyner said that her local police department does in person training with hotels on human trafficking and she is concerned the online option would prevent employees from getting “in depth” training.

Coyner asked Simonds to determine how different localities currently conduct training through law enforcement. Simonds said she has been in close contact with the DCJS who she believes are in contact with law enforcement but that she would further communicate with DCJS on the bill.

Coyner also wanted clearer language regarding how the DCJS would keep records of employees so that they would not have to complete the course again if they moved hotels and would know when the recertification process was due.

Simonds said she remains optimistic about the bill and will work on the suggested items.

“The issues that people were bringing up, I think we can work with,” Simonds said in an interview after the meeting.

Patrick McKenna, co-founder of the Virginia Coalition Against Human Trafficking, voiced support for the bill. It is important for hotel employees to understand “what they’re seeing and what to do when they see it” in order to help discourage trafficking, McKenna said.

Legislators approved a bill last year requiring casino employees who deal with the public to complete a training course in how to recognize and report human trafficking. Simonds sponsored the legislation, which went into effect July 1.

Human trafficking is an ongoing issue in the state that is nearly impossible to quantify, according to a 2019 DCJS report. The General Assembly has passed several bills in past years to combat the human rights issue. Legislators created a statewide Sex Trafficking Response Coordinator position in 2019. The coordinator is tasked with creating an annual report for addressing sex trafficking in Virginia.

The DCJS noted in its recent annual report that more funding and resources are needed for training.

Simonds is also working on a bill to add a common definition of human trafficking to the state code.

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.

Trucking on: How truckers are battling historic labor shortage

RICHMOND — From hand sanitizer and vaccines to groceries and toilet paper, truck drivers are trucking through the COVID-19 pandemic despite a historic labor shortage.

Many industries moved workers home during the start of the pandemic, but truckers worked “to meet the needs of this country.”

“The trucking industry has stepped up and delivered through this whole pandemic,” said Dale Bennett, who has served as president of the Virginia Trucking Association since 1989.

The VTA is a dues-paying membership organization that supports members and lobbies the General Assembly.

Bennett said the trucking industry is experiencing the worst labor shortage that he has ever seen. The American Trucking Association estimated that by the end of 2021 there will be a shortage of more than 80,000 workers, and it will double by 2030. The exact shortage in Virginia is unclear, according to Bennett.

“That is the highest that it’s ever been,” Bennett said. “The driver shortage may be as bad as I have seen it in my time here.”

In an October report to Congress, the American Trucking Association (ATA), laid out eight primary reasons for the industry shortage:

  • High retirement numbers due to an aging workforce.
  • Women account for just over 6% of the workforce.
  • Failed drug tests.
  • Federally mandated minimum age of 21 to drive commercially across state lines.
  • Lifestyle issues, such as long hours away from home.
  • Barriers such as potential candidates inability to meet hiring standards for driving record or criminal histories.
  • Truck driver training schools trained far fewer drivers than normal in 2020.
  • Infrastructure and other issues, like a lack of truck parking spots causing drivers to stop earlier to rest for the night. Congestion also limits drivers’ ability to safely and efficiently make deliveries.

Refueling the pipeline of workers

The industry will have to recruit nearly 1 million new drivers over the next decade to replace drivers and hire needed ones due to industry growth, the ATA forecast.

The trucking industry hauls over 70% of U.S. freight, according to the ATA. Consumer demand is high and 42% of Americans say they plan to spend $500 more this holiday season than last, according to the quarterly MassMutual Holiday Finances Consumer Spending and Saving Quarterly Index.

The number of heavy, or CDL-licensed, tractor-trailer drivers decreased from 43,620 in May 2019 to 42,120 in May 2020 (down 3.4%) while the number of light truck drivers increased from 20,970 to 21,850 during that same time period (up 4.2%), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pickup and delivery drivers fall into the light truck driver category.

Bennett warned that Virginia is short of the amount of heavy truck drivers needed to meet demand from consumers.

“We’ve got a demographic problem in the industry,” Bennett said. “The average age is older than the general workforce and a lot of those folks are retiring.”

Under federal law, a driver has to be at least 21 to drive outside of the state where they hold a commercial driver’s license. Large trucking companies in Virginia, like Old Dominion Freight Line, have routes reaching from Anchorage, Alaska to Miami. The inability to travel over state lines makes drivers under 21 less valuable.

“A 19 year old can drive a tractor trailer from Norfolk, Virginia all the way to Bristol, Virginia,” Bennett said. “But once he gets to Bristol he cannot drive that tractor trailer over state lines into Bristol, Tennessee.”

Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Nov. 5, which includes provisions for an apprenticeship pilot program that would enable drivers under 21 to drive interstate after passing the program.

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, will invest $110 billion into roads, bridges and projects.

Other issues driving the labor shortage

COVID-19 vaccine requirements could affect the labor force also. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an emergency temporary standard on Nov. 4 which requires covered employers with more than 100 workers to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or require regular testing. ATA CEO and President Chris Spears predicted in a letter released on Oct. 21 that the policy could lead to companies losing up to 37% of their drivers to retirements, attrition to smaller carriers or conversion to independent contractor owner-operators.

Age is not the only demographic where the trucking industry is an outlier. Women account for more than 6% of truck drivers compared to more than 47% of the general workforce, according to a 2017 survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

The pandemic also caused temporary shutdowns of driver training schools and the Department of Motor Vehicles, which made addressing the urgent labor shortage difficult.

Duncan Quicke, coordinator of the truck driving training school at Southside Virginia Community College in Brunswick County, said the school closed for three months at the start of the pandemic. Demand for CDL classes is now at an all time high, but it’s more difficult to schedule appointments at DMV, Quicke said.

“Our classes prior to COVID were probably averaging seven to eight individuals per six-week period,” Quicke said. “Our class size today is probably averaging 10 to 11.”

Weak links in the supply chain

Truck companies are also feeling the impact of the supply chain issue. Companies have trouble ordering new trucks or parts to fix their fleets, Bennett said. A global microchip shortage has driven up the value of new and used cars. People are buying auto parts to keep their old vehicles running, which creates an extreme demand for parts.

“They are cannibalizing parts off of older vehicles just to keep them running and moving freight,” Bennett said.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes a 38% increase in funding for bridges and roads. The Virginia Department of Transportation will manage the funds but a portion of funding is expected to be allocated to growing the Norfolk Harbor, according to a news release from Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th.

Long delays at ports have made getting freight delivered on time a challenge for carriers.

“It’s called a chain for a lot of reasons, because it’s got a lot of links in it,” Bennett said. “Not all of those links are operating as efficiently as they need to be.”

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program cover news for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.