1. Employee Health and Safety
Chapter 10
Employee Health and Safety

2. Legal Aspects of Employee Protection
Occupation Safety and Health Act
OSHA: Short for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency responsible for enforcing the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The Act established, for the first time, a nationwide, federal program to protect almost the entire work force from job-related death, injury and illness.

3. Legal Aspects of Employee Protection
Occupation Safety and Health Act
OSHA’s "Right-To-Know" law includes three major areas:
Locating, Inventorying, and Tracking Potentially Hazardous Chemicals.
Identifying, Labeling and Providing Information About Potentially Hazardous Chemicals
Training/Educating Employees

4. Legal Aspects of Employee Protection
Occupation Safety and Health Act
Major areas of OSHA mandated recordkeeping related to the hospitality industry include:
Log and summary of all recordable injuries and illnesses
Personal Protective Equipment - Assessment & Training
Control of Hazardous Energy
Hazard Communication Standards
Emergency Action Plans and Fire Prevention Plans

5. Legal Aspects of Employee Protection
Civil Rights Act of 1964 re: Harassment
Employees can face a variety of harassment:
Bullying
Psychological harassment
Racial harassment
Religious harassment
Stalking
Sexual harassment
Zero tolerance: A policy that permits no amount of leniency regarding harassing behavior.

6. Employee Health Worksite Health HR managers should:
Provide Sufficient Quantities of Fresh Air
Provide a smoke-free environment
Keep air ducts clean and dry
Maintain effective equipment inspection programs
Monitor Repetitive Movement Injuries
Carpal tunnel syndrome: Nerve damage resulting in a burning, tingling, or itching numbness in the palm of the hand and the fingers, especially the thumb and the index and middle fingers
Monitor stress levels
Pay attention to worker complaints

7. Employee Health Worksite Health Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
Wellness programs: An employer sponsored initiative designed to promote the good health of employees.

8. Employee Safety and Security
Safety: Freedom from the conditions that cause personal harm.
Security: Freedom from fear and anxiety related to personal harm.
Crisis: A situation that has the potential to affect negatively the health, safety or security of employees.

9. Employee Safety and Security
Employee Safety Programs
Simplified Safety Management System:
Step 1. Recognition of the safety threat
Step 2. Program development in response to threat
Step 3. Program implementation
Step 4. Program evaluation

10. Employee Safety and Security
Crisis Management Programs
Pre-Crisis Planning
Emergency plan: The specific actions to be taken by managers and staff in response to a crisis. Pre-crisis Planning
Evacuation plan: The specific actions to be taken by managers and staff when vacating a building in response to a crisis.

11. Employee Safety and Security
Crisis Management Programs
Emergency Plan Practice
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A severe reaction to an event that caused a threat to an individual’s physical or emotional health.

12. Employee Safety and Security
Zero Tolerance Harassment Programs
Hostile work environment: A workplace infused with intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is severe or pervasive enough to create a seriously uncomfortable or abusive working environment with conduct severe enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would find intimidating.

13. Employee Safety and Security
Zero Tolerance Harassment Programs
Quid Pro Quo (sexual harassment): Literally “something for something.”
Harassment that occurs when a supervisor behaves in a way or demands actions from an employee that forces the employee to decide between giving in to sexual demands or losing their job, losing job benefits or promotion, or otherwise suffering negative consequences.

14. Employee Safety and Security
Zero Tolerance Harassment Programs
To help prevent harassment, HR managers should:
Understand what is and isn't a "hostile work environment”
Understand the company policy
Understand the impact on unions
Understand the effect of speech
Understand proper investigations
Understand Personal Liability

15. Employee Safety and Security
Zero Tolerance Harassment Programs
“When, exactly, does the language used or action displayed constitute harassment?”
Reasonable person (standard): The typical, or average person (and their behavior and beliefs) placed in a specific environmental setting.

16. Employee Safety and Security
Preventing Workplace Violence
Workplace violence: Any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in his or her place of employment.

17. Employee Safety and Security
Preventing Workplace Violence
Workplace violence includes:
Threatening Behavior
Verbal Threats
Implicit: A threatening act that is implied rather than expressly stated.
Explicit: A threatening act that is fully and clearly expressed or demonstrated; leaving nothing merely implied.
Written Threats
Harassing activities
Verbal abuse
Physical attacks

18. Employee Safety and Security
Preventing Workplace Violence
Steps to protect workers from violence:
Install bulletproof glass and limited access barriers.
Install video surveillance, alarm systems, and door detectors.
Increase lighting.
Trim back bushes and shrubs that provide hiding places.
Locate drive-thru windows within the same building as the restaurant, rather than in the parking lot by itself.
Implement effective alcohol server training programs.
Train room attendants to keep guest room doors open when cleaning.
Minimize the amount of cash available to cashiers.

19. Employee Safety and Security
Preventing Workplace Violence
An effective workplace violence policy will detail:
What specific behaviors management considers inappropriate and unacceptable in the workplace
What employees should do when incidents covered by the policy occur
Who should be contacted when reporting workplace violence incidents
That threats or assaults that require immediate attention should be reported to the property’s security department or directly to the police at 911.