Tag Archives: Employees

by | June 15, 2011 · 7:35 am

Hospitality Industry Employee Theft Risks: Delaware Hotel Sales Manager Arrested For "Creating Fictitious Hotel Rewards Program Accounts" And Purchasing Goods Later Resold For Cash

“…McNeill worked at the Renaissance Hotel, part of the Marriott chain, in Tinicum Township as a sales manager until Nov. 24, according to court papers. According to court documents, McNeill allegedly created six fictitious accounts in Marriott’s rewards program and logged points into the system. Purchases using those accounts were made between October and December of last year…”

A former Delaware County hotel employee has been arrested after she allegedly used more than $103,000 worth of fraudulent “hotel points” to buy items on Skymall, the online shopping catalog.

Tia L. McNeill, 34, formerly of King of Prussia, was taken into custody on Tuesday at a Sheraton Hotel in Towson, Md., where she now works. She has been charged with theft, criminal conspiracy, receiving stolen property, and related offenses, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Also arrested was Christopher Jordan Jr., assistant director of basketball operations at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Jordan told police he would use accounts created by McNeill to order merchandise and then resell the items for cash. He would then send half the proceeds to McNeill.

In addition, McNeill allegedly illegally obtained $26,775 worth of Marriott Visa cards, which can be used only at the hotels

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by | June 5, 2011 · 9:50 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: Amended "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA) Became Law On May 24 With Potential For "Increased Frequency Of Litigation Losses"; Management Must Improve Accomodation Efforts

“…under the amended act, an employee who suffers from depression may be able to function quite normally with the aid of medication but will still be considered to be disabled and will need to receive accommodation….”

“…the frequency of discrimination claims will likely increase — as will the frequency of litigation losses — but she says the severity of individual claims will likely not change all that much, with class actions in this field being a rarity…”

Existing employment-practices liability insurance policies shouldn’t have to be rewritten or modified, she says. “We would push back on any attempt to limit coverage just because the act has been expanded.”

Employers, however, should be integrating their disability-management programs to include non-occupationally injured and ill employees, and not just workers’ compensation cases, according to Pimentel.

“That is the big trend, and by the way, from an ADA-compliance standpoint, I recommend employers take a close look at doing that,” Pimentel says.

Employers should also be revisiting how much training they are doing among their supervisors on employee etiquette, language and comfort levels in communicating with disabled employees, he advises.

“Talking to them about their needs for accommodation is … an enforced requirement under the law,” Pimentel says.

For more:  http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533338925

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by | April 8, 2011 · 10:53 am

Hospitality Industry Health Insurance: Law Firms Advise Hotel Ownership And Management To Prepare For Implementation Of Health Care Reform With "Wellness Programs" And State-Run "Insurance Exchanges" On The Way

Given the legal challenges to the proposed reform of the United States health care industry, there might be a temptation on the part of hoteliers to take a laid-back attitude toward preparing for the changes. That line of thinking, however, would be a mistake, said Scott Sinder, a partner in the Steptoe & Johnson law firm government affairs and public policy practice.

  • One of the biggest issues hotel companies will have to wrestle with will be whether to retain grandfather status, which refers to plans in place prior to 23 March 2010
  • Grandfathered plans, for example, can allow for changes to the network of providers but cannot impose new or decreased annual spending limits
  • The potential introduction of a wellness provision that provides funding for employers to establish wellness programs…will be the biggest key to keeping health-care costs down
  • The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that just 38% of the employees in the hospitality sector had access to health care as of March 2010 compared with 71% across all industries
  • Every state will eventually have an Insurance Exchange as most state lawsuits against health care reform will be settled before Presidential Election

For more:  http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/5314/Hoteliers-should-assume-health-care-changes

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by | March 11, 2011 · 7:51 pm

Hospitality Industry Security Risks: Hotel Employee "Erroneously" Gives Room Key To Man Who Is Charged With Child Molestation And Assault

Allegedly, the suspect was not a registered guest at the hotel but was staying with a registered guest. He approached a front desk clerk and stated that he did not have his room key and therefore needed a replacement key.

On top of that, the suspect stated to the clerk which room that he was staying in, and … the clerk did not bother to check the suspect’s identfication against the stated room number.

According to KMOV-News, An intoxicated adult male, Daniel T. Hughes, 42, had asked for a room key at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and was not only given the wrong room key, but climbed into bed with a 9-year old child.

The child’s parents were asleep in an ajoined room. At this time. the Clayton Police Department, do not believe that the suspect had any prediposed motives leading up to the assault, however, he was arrested, charged, and being held on bail. The incident occurred early Sunday evening around 4:00 a.m.

For more:  http://www.examiner.com/offender-awareness-in-st-louis/error-judgment-by-ritz-carlton-employee-leads-to-child-molestation

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by | February 20, 2011 · 12:18 pm

Hospitality Industry Employee Risks: Hotel Management Must Establish "Off-The-Clock" Policies For Employee Responses To Business Calls, Texts And Emails

Adding to the complexity of off-the-clock rules are the number of employees who respond to e-mails, text messages or phone calls after their shift is finished. Workers often do so by choice, but the employer could be held liable for overtime should the employees file a later claim.

“Time spent on these activities will likely be deemed compensable,”

One area that has attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years is rest periods; defined as requiring a 10-minute break period for every four hours of work, and meal periods of at least 30 minutes for shifts lasting longer than five hours.

Previously employers were required by law to ensure their employees took breaks appropriately, but it was difficult to manage, particularly for employees who preferred to take a break and conduct personal business at their desk or work station.

In an appeal of a court order in the case of Brinker Restaurant Corp. vs. Superior Court, the appeal reversed the stricter order, ruling that rest and meal breaks need only be made available, and not ensured.

As this is an issue that affects so many people and produced so many lawsuits, the California Supreme Court granted a review of Brinker decision. A final ruling is expected this year.

“We recommend counseling employees to get off the clock and take their break,” Poole said.

There should also be wording describing the break periods the employee is required to take, at the bottom of every time sheet or card an employee signs, Koegle said. Repeatedly signing a time card with the advisory would be one means of acknowledging the law by employer and employee alike.

Employers should include strong written policy in their company employee handbook that nonexempt employees are not expected to work after-hours, and advise their employees of the policy.

Last, companies requiring employees to change in and out of uniforms at the workplace must compensate the employees for the time spent doing so.

Privacy expectations

The recent technology explosion brings a whole new set of complications for employers. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that an employee with a company-issued device such as a cell phone, smart phone or computer has a reasonable right to privacy while using the equipment.

First Amendment rights protect employee messages, even those a company deems objectionable. A company must have a reasonable cause to search text, e-mails or Internet browsing by an employee.

It is expected however that in the next few months the courts will rule in a company’s favor, granting a company the right to prohibit activity such as surfing the Internet for pornography. Employee use of social media, whether performing duties on the job or for personal use, is also a hot topic.

Companies will need to craft well-written employee policies outlining actions that are subject to discipline or termination. The next question will be how policies can be enforced if an employee violates policy after-hours when they are off-duty.

For more:  http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/40833/

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by | February 3, 2011 · 10:21 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: Hotel Owners Must Strive To "Avoid" Employee Lawsuits With "Strong Management" And "Attentive HR Staff"

“…a review of selected cases shows plaintiffs prevailed in 55% of retaliation and whistleblower lawsuits and in 75% of sexual harassment cases…”

“…The pro-employee and, many argue, pro-union policies of the Obama administration have arguably made matters worse, if not convincing employees to sue or obstruct their employers, at least showing them how it’s accomplished…”

 

The Department of Labor, for example, citing the difficulty the average employee encounters in navigating the legal system, has said it will now provide wage/hour claimants who had filed cases with the agency but whose claims would not be heard (including those whose claims lacked merit) with a list of local attorneys who, as a DOL official announced, “may be able to help.” 

The National Labor Relations Board, its regulatory and judicial reach muted during the Bush administration, is an agency reborn, replete with pro-union appointees. In mid-December 2010, the Board announced a proposed rule that would require employers to place on employee bulletin boards a poster notifying employees of their right to unionize. Employers, particularly those in the hospitality and other service industries staffed predominantly by minimum wage employees, are understandably likely to object. Meanwhile, unions won two-thirds of all conclusive elections conducted in 2009, the most recent year surveyed, according to the NLRB’s 2009 annual report.

  Vanquishing the curse of litigation is no easy task. Labor and employment lawyers long have argued that the only effective way is to keep it from happening—to keep the genie in the bottle. How? The most practical prophylactic is a combination of strong, compassionate leadership (the opposite of what destructive leaders peddle) and an equally strong, dialed-in HR team who fairly administer policies that recognize an employee’s intrinsic value and reinforce the organization’s unequivocal support for fair treatment.

For more: http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/4679/Two-big-HR-challenges-in-2011

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by | January 29, 2011 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Employee Risks: New York Restaurant Employees "Secretly Tape" Owner And Supervisors And Claim Violation Of "Federal Labor Laws"

“These tapes and transcripts provide irrefutable proof that the Boathouse Restaurant has repeatedly violated federal labor laws,” said Peter Ward, president of Local 6 of the hotel and restaurant workers union.

Employees at the iconic Boathouse Restaurant in Central Park have been secretly taping their bosses.

Fed up with their treatment by management, dozens of waiters and dishwashers have been reporting to work for the past year armed with miniature cassette recorders and have taped hundreds of workplace conversations. Restaurant owner Dean Poll can be heard on several of the tapes warning his employees that if they vote for a union he “will go out of business.”

A dozen workers claimed Thursday in interviews with the Daily News that supervisors routinely threatened and retaliated against them for trying to organize a union.

On Tuesday, Poll suddenly dismissed 16 workers – all supporters of the union campaign.

The restaurant normally employs about 100 people in the winter and up to 200 during the spring and summer.

“They told us we were terminated because they have a new policy of bringing in agency workers,” said Francisco Labayen, a banquet waiter who regularly wore a wire to work.

Local 6 responded to those firings by formally petitioning for a union election Thursday to the National Labor Relations Board. Ward wants investigators from the federal agency to listen to the audiotapes for themselves and sanction Poll for a host of unfair labor practices.

For more:  http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/01/28/2011-01-28_restaurant_staffs_tale_of_the_tape.html

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by | December 30, 2010 · 3:59 am

Hospitality Industry Employee Risks: Hotel Owners Should Maintain “Employment Practices Liability” Insurance Coverage For Wrongful Termination, Harassment And Discrimination Suits

EPL insurance policies protect businesses from the financial costs incurred from employment-related lawsuits filed for a range of reasons, from wrongful termination to harassment to discrimination and so on. More than half of claims are filed against small businesses…however, less than two percent of businesses with fewer than 50 employees purchase EPL insurance.

  • A recent Chubb survey found that 36 percent of private company executives understand the gravity of their exposure to EPL suits and 21 percent said they had an experience with an EPL suit in the last five years.
  • While every EPL policy is different, a company with $1 million in sales and 50 employees can likely get a policy for about $7,000 per year—$10,000 if they also take out coverage protecting directors and officers in the event of liability lawsuits against them personally.
  • The leading charge filed in discrimination cases is an allegation of racial discrimination, at 36 percent of cases, according to EEOC figures from 2009. Gender-based discrimination was alleged in 30 percent of cases.
  • Age-based claims made up 24 percent
  • Disabled claims tallied 23 percent.

In many cases, multiple allegations are made. One of the growing charges, according to the EEOC, is retaliation against employees for making discrimination claims, which can involve a job switch that the employee views as a demotion related to the initial claim.

“If you go to your supervisor and say you’ve been harassed by Joe, you can bring that claim to EEOC, but then if they decide to fire you or cut back your hours, that is the retaliation component,” says Tom Hams, Aon Risk Solutions’s EPL practice leader. “That retaliation component can survive much more than the allegation itself.” The employer may win on the allegation of whether or not you were discriminated against, but they may lose a case based on the retaliation claim for moving the complainant to a different job or office setting.

For more:  http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/12/how-to-reduce-employment-liability-claims_pagen_2.html#

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by | December 10, 2010 · 5:51 am

Hotel Industry Employee Issues: Report Finds “Fraud And Misuse” Of H-2B Guest Worker Program By Hotel Management And Owners

The H-2B program for unskilled non-agricultural migrant workers is one of the nation’s many alien worker programs, and one that, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report, is subject to extensive fraud and abuse.

The H-2B program is both smaller than the H-1B program, for high tech workers, and subject to considerably less attention. In terms of visa issuances, one measure of the size of these programs, there were 44,847 H-2B visas issued in FY 2009, compared to 110,367 H-1B visas. These numbers are from the annual Report of the Visa Office at the State Department.

Since the H-1B program displaces American workers with college degrees, and depresses wages where the high-tech workers are concentrated, it secures a lot more public attention that the H-2B program, which operates at the other end of the labor market, where employers hire landscapers, forest workers, waiters, and other less-skilled workers.

GAO’s report on the troubles with the program are based on a solid foundation; the agency’s auditors found ten closed criminal and civil cases in which courts had decided that employers had misused the program and abused their alien workers. The highlights of these cases, as quoted in the report, are as follows:

Hotel owners forced H-2B workers to work in substandard conditions, confiscated workers’ passports, and threatened workers that they would be sent home in a ‘box’ if they disobeyed orders . . .

Workers from India paid at least $20,000 for H-2B visas to enter the U.S. but were never employed by the construction company . . .

Conspirators fraudulently obtained H-2B certifications from Labor for over 3,800 individuals, leased workers to undisclosed businesses not listed on the visa petitions, [and] defrauded the government of $7.4 million in payroll taxes . . .

The nation would do just fine without any H-2B program at all; the only “cost” would be that some marginal employers would have to increase their wages a bit to attract workers to their jobs.

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by | December 8, 2010 · 4:21 am

Hospitality Industry Insurance Issues: Santa Cruz Hotel Owners Negotiate Successful Contract With Union Employees Saving Substantial Benefits And Expenses

 In negotiating the new contract the owners and operator initially hoped to slash more than $500,000 from their operating costs; the union, meanwhile, sought to guard employees’ insurance, eight-hour workday and paid vacation.

“It was very, very challenging because the owners were spending more than a million dollars a year in benefits,” says Jane Howard, Chief People Officer for Joie de Vivre Hospitality. “We needed to work together to get the cost of that down some, and we were able to do that.” The hotel ultimately accepted an insurance plan proposed by the labor union that is expected to save it $130,000 annually.

The owners and operators of Santa Cruz’s Dream Inn can rest easy now that the unionized employees at the hotel have finally ratified a contract following nearly a year of negotiations and union demonstrations. The employees, represented by UNITE HERE Local 483, voted to accept a new four-year contract last Tuesday, Nov. 30. 

The Dream Inn is jointly owned by the Southern California real estate developer Ensemble Investments and AEW Capital Management and operated by Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which manages a number of other properties around the state.

The final agreement, which will allow employees to keep their insurance and eight-hour work day but not their paid vacation time, was reached in arbitration with an outside mediator that took place at the hotel on Nov. 23. A week later, the employees voted with a 91 percent majority to accept the contract; had they failed to ratify, the union would have moved to strike.

“I think we made some progress,” Michael Roberts, a bartender at the Dream Inn’s Aquarius restaurant, said. “We definitely got a reasonable contract, but for me, a lot of it came down to the fact that I didn’t feel like the membership would have supported a strike if it came down to that. They were willing to do certain actions, but I don’t think a strike would have been supported.”

The new contract covers 85 workers at the hotel, who, under its terms, will keep a generous benefits package that includes health, dental, vision and life insurance—all free—for the employee’s entire family. “It was very, very challenging because the owners were spending more than a million dollars a year in benefits,” says Jane Howard, Chief People Officer for Joie de Vivre Hospitality. “We needed to work together to get the cost of that down some, and we were able to do that.” The hotel ultimately accepted an insurance plan proposed by the labor union that is expected to save it $130,000 annually.

The insurance policy was ultimately the most important factor for Roberts, although he sympathized with longtime employees who, under the new contract, will lose paid vacation time accrued over many years of service. “I’ve only worked there for three and a half years, but we have employees who have worked there for almost 20 years who are taking hits for vacation—like losing a week or more days—so it was a very big deal for them.”

“That was painful for us, we really didn’t want to have to move on vacation,” says Lizzie Keegan, a representative for UNITE HERE who was present throughout negotiations. “There were some things that obviously stung a little bit, but overall we ratified with over that 90 percent because everybody feels that, in this economic recession, we will have to [make some concessions] and it will be hard, but we’re really proud that we have really good insurance and it covers us and covers our families.”

For more:  http://news.santacruz.com/2010/12/07/dream_inn_hotel_workers_keep_bennies

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