Hilton fined over scalding incident
A breach of health and safety regulations that caused a schoolgirl worker to be scalded by a pot of boiling tea has cost the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel £22,000.
Bosses at the 794-bedroom hotel admitted a charge of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act at Solihull Magistrates' Court.
The hotel, formerly the Stakis Birmingham Metropole, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £12,000 costs.
The court heard it took a 14-year-old girl on for work experience in July 1999, four months after Hilton bought the Stakis chain for £1.4b.
The teenager was carrying a pot of tea while working in the hotel's restaurant and scalded herself.
The hotel was said to have failed to carry out a proper risk assessment on the teenager and had not provided her with adequate training.
Investigations between May and August 1999 showed a further 30 young people had been placed at risk because the hotel failed to carry out risk assessments.
After the case, Mark Hooker, principal environmental officer for Solihull Council, said: "We hope this case will inform parents of the potential dangers their children face while in the workplace."
