Stop 4: Safety

Another topic that I think is very important in the Hospitality industry is safety. According to Work Safe Center, "workers in the leisure and hospitality report work-related injury or illness at a rate of 4.2 per 100 full-time employees." Guests and customers also have a very high chance of suffering from injuries or illnesses from hotels and restaurants. Because the hospitality industry is somewhere where accidents are prone to happen, we need to do anything that we can to prevent them from happening. 

According to the book, OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is he act that was created to regulate workforce safety for all workers in the United States. This act has helped reduce a lot of the safety hazards at the workplace. 

These laws and regulations are taken very seriously by these departments. Just a few days ago in Michigan, AJM Packaging's plant in Southgate was fined $250,000 because of worker safety violations. Imagine a packaging plant that big with several worker safety violations... Many of their workers risks their lives to work here to support themselves and their families. The workers are put in a very tough situation because they have to put food on the table but they are scared everyday at work. 

While this next example is not quite a hospitality one, I still thought it is very relevant and is a very good example. Linda Mantia has been a responder to traffic crashes in Missouri for 20 years and there is not much that she has not seen or experienced. As someone who can barely stand seeing someone get a shot, I can only imagine how many horrific things she has to see everyday. Mantia applied for worker's compensation benefits but was denied by her employer. The court and her employer argued whether or not her mental injury is serious enough to be given worker's comp. In the end, "the appeals court affirmed the Commission's ruling that awarded Mantia comp benefits for 50% partial permanent disability and the right to future medical care from MoDOT (her employer) for her work-related mental injury." 

All in all, the workplace safety is very important since it does not only protect employees from getting hurt but also the guests and the employers.