May, 2018 - HospitalityLawyer.com®

Employer-Mandated Tip Pooling Guidelines

by Wilson Elser in Food & Beverage, Legal. Posted May 31, 2018

Tips and their distribution among the staff have plagued the hospitality industry for years. Federal courts interpret the federal law differently and states have enacted their own statutes that place employers in constant uncertainty, depending on where they are located. Also, tip pooling arrangements have been a regular part of many restaurant operations and are ...

Hotels and Consumers Making Headway in Anti-Room Poaching Battle

by Brittany Fayette in Legal, Lodging. Posted May 29, 2018

It’s estimated that room poaching results in upwards of $1.3 billion in lost revenue for hotels and lost funds for consumers every year. As hotels and consumers look for a way to fight against these losses, trademark infringement may be emerging as the most effective tool. Room poaching occurs when companies position themselves as an ...

Understanding Risk Associated with Vaccine-Preventable Diseases While Traveling

by Katherine Harmon in Risk Management, Safety & Security, Travel. Posted May 26, 2018

When it comes to public health, one of the easiest ways to avoid becoming susceptible to disease that is widespread in many populations is to ensure that you’re vaccinated against diseases that are preventable. Authorities can mandate certain vaccine programs to keep their citizens healthy; however, vaccine programs face many challenges. People opt out of ...

A Step-By-Step Guide To Terminating Employees For Theft (Part One)

by Edward Harold in Human Resources, Insurance & Loss Prevention. Posted May 24, 2018

There’s good news for retailers: you are getting better at preventing shrink from employees. In 2005, a University of Florida study found that employee theft accounted for 47 percent of shrink. In a follow-up study in 2016, the university found that the percentage of shrink caused by employee theft was “only” 30 percent. The bad news: ...

Cal/OSHA Compels Hospitality Employers to Clean Up Their Act, Ergonomically Speaking

by Conn Maciel Carey in Human Resources, Legal, Lodging. Posted May 22, 2018

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the single most common type of work-related injury, but federal OSHA has struggled for decades to develop a coherent regulatory and/or enforcement strategy to address the hazards that cause these ergonomic injuries. Where federal OSHA fell short, the State of California has picked up the slack, with Cal-OSHA recently finalizing a ...

Beware of the ICE: Hospitality and Retail Industries Need to Prioritize Immigration Compliance

by Charles Spitz in Food & Beverage, Human Resources, Legal, Lodging, Risk Management. Posted May 19, 2018

From the beginning of his Presidency, immigration compliance has been a top priority for President Trump. This has included the removal from the U.S. of individuals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terms “higher priority.” While ICE’s enforcement efforts have included a variety of methods and venues, an expansion into worksite enforcement has also ...

Two Sides of the Hotel Security Equation

by Hayley Pham in Insurance & Loss Prevention, Legal, Lodging, Risk Management, Safety & Security. Posted May 17, 2018

Recently, as we were planning and executing two conferences at two different hotels, we encountered such totally different perspectives on conference attendee safety that we wondered if we were in a reality TV show. Here’s a look at how that script might play out: Hotel safety protocols Scene I Exterior: London, England. Upscale major branded ...

Hotel and Large Venue Security: An Evolving Threat Environment Requires Innovative Practices

by Steve Cocco in Hotel Development, Lodging, Risk Management, Safety & Security. Posted May 15, 2018

Much has been said and written of late with regard to the need to address hotel and large venue security, like sports stadiums, in the aftermath of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting in the vicinity of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. But six months after the attack, in which 58 people were ...

Virtual Kidnapping in the US and Mexico

by Jodie Boudaard in Risk Management, Safety & Security, Technology, Travel. Posted May 5, 2018

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies in the United States have issued several warnings related to virtual kidnapping in recent months. This extortion technique has become more prevalent in the US and Mexico since 2013, where the number of reported cases has increased substantially. What Is Virtual Kidnapping? In a virtual kidnapping, ...

Employee Training is Key to GDPR Compliance

by Melissa Dials in Insurance & Loss Prevention, Legal, Technology. Posted May 3, 2018

The EU’s General Data Protective Regulation (“GDPR”) goes into effect on May 25, 2018. It is a mammoth regulation and perhaps the most significant European data protection legislation in more than 20 years. In fact, the European Commission just released a new website to help stakeholders, including businesses, with implementation. With its global reach, applying to any ...

Monthly Archives: May 2018