Hotel Staff Safety- Keep your Hotel staff safe at work
One of the main problems facing hoteliers and the hotel industry relates to injuries to members of staff. In a fast moving environment, injuries, mostly preventable can happen all to often. The law requires you to effect employers liability protection insurance to protect employees for sums you are legally required to pay for accident, injury or loss. However, a well run hotel following all procedures correctly should be able to limit the chances of an incident happening.
Hotel staff are employed within the services industry and as such, as well as working for an establishment that provides accommodation to travellers, they are responsible for the helping to meet the guest expectations. All guests, will have certain expectations of the establishments they stay in and staff are often employed in a large variety of manual tasks such as: carrying baggage, general maintenance work, cleaning and reception. These tasks have to be carried out smoothly to ensure the efficient running of the hotel establishment. Easily, the biggest risk for hotel workers is that from repetitive work sprains & strains. Simple training can be provided to all employees to help prevent these type of inquires and there are a numbers of videos and DVDs available which help to provide guidance. Back problems can be quite painful and are not the easiest of injuries to sort out, many hotel staff are required to carry baggage on a regular basis and interchanging staff if possible to allow them to rest different muscle groups can help. As far as possible, all types of labour should be carried out with a neutral posture. Tasks performed, while kneeling down, whilst reaching up or with a bent back are more likely to cause problems. Providing long handles tools for cleaning, dusting, mopping & vacuuming etc can help prevent strains etc. Muscles should also be rested every 30 minutes.
Hotel Safety-Employers Liability insurance
A certificate of employers liability insurance should be displayed on the premises in a suitable place that all employees have access to. You are also required to keep certificates of employers liability hotel insurance for a period of 40 years after they have expired. The law also requires you to keep a record of all injuries to employees in an accident book. As well as employees any hotel guests, visitors or contractors that are injured whilst on your premises, should also have the details recorded. Some incidents require further actions to be carried out and you may have to report an incident to your local authority under the ‘Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995’ (RIDDOR)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), place a legal duty on:
- all employers.
- self-employed persons ( such as a self employed hotelier).
- people in control of premises;
You can make a report via the Incident Contact Centre. The regulations offer varying timescales for reporting different types of incidents, it is thus advisable to ring and report an incident as soon as possible. The Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 99 23, you may also be able to report an incident online.
The following types of incident on your hotel premises must be reported:
- deaths
- all major injuries
- over-3-day injuries rule – where an employee is away from work absent or is unable to perform their normal work duties for more than three consecutive days.
- injuries to members of the public or people not at work where they are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital.
- some work-related diseases.
- Any dangerous occurrences, this applies when an incident occurs at your premises, that does not result in an injury ( perhaps quite fortuitously) but could have done.
In many cases, it is not clear what should and should not be reported, if in any doubt, it’s probably best to seek advice.
For further details of Hotel Insurance Policies available from Assetsure please click here
