Two killings put catering on spot over staff safety
Two fatal incidents in the past month have raised serious questions over whether hotels are doing enough to protect their staff.
Last week, a chef was arrested for the murder of a barman at the Macdonalds Last Drop hotel in Bolton. The week before, Dublin's Central Criminal Court had heard how a 24-year-old receptionist at Jurys Inn in Limerick, Grainnie Dillon, had been shot dead last year by the hotel's night porter during a robbery.
Isolated incidents these might be, but the family of the receptionist is calling for a full investigation of Jurys Doyle on the grounds that it had not provided adequate protection.
After the court hearing, where the night porter was sentenced to life imprisonment, the receptionist's brother, Aoife Dillon, said: "I believe that if my sister had been given adequate supervision and training, and staff levels had been adequate, she would still be alive."
He alleged that his sister had never received personal safety training and that, on the night of the murder, she had been left in charge of 300 guests, with only a panic button on the reception desk for protection.
Jurys claims to have safety plans in place for all staff. They cover security procedures, with regular security training for all employees. Security systems in place throughout its hotels include access control measures, intruder alarm devices, CCTV and communication equipment.
But what is its legal standing? Protection of staff, while a legal requirement, is rather a woolly one. The Health & Safety Executive rules that a business is responsible for the health and safety of its staff, and this includes carrying out a risk assessment and then implementing "necessary" measures. However, it's not clear what these necessary measures might be.
"It's not prescriptive," said an HSE spokesman. "We don't say you should do X, Y and Z."
This means that some hotel groups could get away with doing very little by way of protecting their staff, and would still be within the law.
Most hotel groups, however, do have some security measures in place. Many have CCTV, some have panic buttons, and Thistle Hotels, for example, has this month introduced security badges for all personnel, which show their name and department.
Simon Baldwin, operations director of Alias Hotels, which has four hotels, said that he is looking at introducing a walkie-talkie system for staff working at night, but maintains that common-sense advice is just as important as gadgets.
"With horrific incidents," he said, "you can have the most sophisticated equipment and it's not going to stop that person carrying out the crime. Our message to staff is to take evasive action, raise the alarm and don't try to be courageous."
Whatever the likelihood of crime, the fear of it in the hotel and restaurant industry is very real.
The British Crime Survey, carried out in 2000, showed that 22% of workers in hotels and restaurants said they were worried about violence at work. This compares with 21% of care workers worried about violence, and 23% of security and protection workers.
But it seems that those fears are largely ignored. The survey found that, across all occupations, 72% of workers said they had received no formal training or even informal advice concerning safety at work. So, while hotels may believe that they are forward-thinking on using technology to prevent crime, other measures, such as conflict management training, are something of a rarity.
Bill Fox, director of Maybo, a consultant in work-related conflict, believes that employers could be far more astute, particularly when it comes to infighting among staff.
"Often," he said, "there are issues among staff members that are brewing, and too often there are occasions when the simmering situation blows up. It is essential for companies to have an approach in place that minimises the risk of conflict."
This may not prevent a tragedy, but at least the company involved can say that it did everything in its power to avoid it.
By Christina Golding
