Restaurant safety - first and foremost!

Nation's Restaurant News, June 26, 1989 by Stephen Estrin

Restaurant safety -- first and foremost!

Joanne Brown walked into a South Florida restaurant, looking for a job. She was a slender 15-year-old, and she was hired on the spot. She began work the next day and was made responsible for the salad bar.

Her duties were simple, to keep the salad bar filled at all times, as it was a major feature of the restaurant.

The salad bar was noted for its size and variety of choices, which included various hot soups. Everything was prepared in the kitchen and manually carried to the salad bar. While carrying a 1-gallon, covered, but unsecured pot of soup from the kitchen, Brown was bumped by a patron who was going to the men's room. The soup spilled from the pot onto her legs, and she received second- and third-degree burns, which caused scarring of her right ankle.

The scarring required plastic surgery, with skin grafting from her hip causing additional scarring. Her total medical expenses were less than $3,000.

Not much of an injury, one would say. The jury didn't think so and awarded Brown $225,000.

This case is particularly interesting because it shows how broadly restaurant management safety concerns must extend in order to prevent employee injuries and profit losses. Here the management failures included human resources, personnel hiring, and equipment purchasing practices.

To fully understand how hiring and equipment purchasing practices. safety, and thereby profits, it is necessary to explore the claims made by Brown through her attorneys.

First, a claim was made that the restaurant was negligent per se for violating the state labor laws by hiring a child less than 17 years of age in a place serving alcohol; additionally, for failing to obtain written permission from Brown's high-school principal, allowing her to work on a school-day evening; and, finally, permitting her to work more than 20 hours per week and after 8 p.m.

For any employer, the claim of negligence can be devastating. Simply stated, it means that, if a state law can be shown to have been violated, the employer can offer no defense in his behalf and a directed verdict will be awarded to the injured employee. That is what happened here. The only task for the jury was to decide upon the amount of the ward.

As if negligence for failing to comply with the state labor laws was not enough, Brown, through her attorneys, also claimed that the management of the restaurant was "just plain negligent" for assigning her a work task -- carrying a gallon of hot soup between the kitchen and the salad bar -- that was ill-suited to her age and slender build.

The jury agreed with Brown and her attorneys, and she was therefore awarded the $225,000.

This case history of an actual litigation points up the fact that restaurant safety is more than merely ensuring that your fire exits are not blocked and that the kitchen stoves have a fire suppression system. Restaurant safety requires that the principals -- the owners, executives, and members of the board -- be aware that safety is good business. Accidents, on the other hand, rob the company of profits.

The chief executive officer is the key to a restaurant's organization. As the visible leader, he or she must make clear to the various department and division heads and staff specialists what their areas of responsibility and accountability for safety are. They, in turn, must delegate specific safety responsibilities down the line to their subordinates and hold them accountable to the same extent that they do for productivity and profits.

Brown's injury was due to her employer's lack of a safety policy that clearly stated the dollar value of safety. Specifically, the chief executive officer never assigned responsibility for safety to the human resources department or to purchasing.

Accidents, unplanned and unwanted happenings that result in personal injury or property damage or both, are caused either by unsafe acts, worker errors, or unsafe conditions -- the physical housekeeping, mechanical and operational characteristics of the restaurant. Any restaurant's personnel and purchasing practices have a tremendous positive impact upon worker and patron accident reduction, and profit increases when these recommended procedures are followed.

The human resources staff should be given responsibility and held accountable for minimizing the probability of unsafe acts by employees. That can be accomplished through careful selection of employees, placement counseling, and training. Past histories of prospective employees should be checked to reveal accidents. It should be a policy to hire only those workers with histories of working safely.

It is acceptable to hire students, but you should know the state labor laws and check first with the school guidance department to establish reliability and performance history. Unreliable students make unsafe employees.

Be sure that each new employee has the strength and stamina required to do an assigned job safely. Remember, a jury said that Brown didn't, to the tune of $225,000.