NATURE OF HOTEL AND RESTAURANT ACTIVITIES

• 01.01 - Restaurant and hotel staff structure
  
• 01.02 - Description of restaurant personnel activities
  
• 01.03 - Description of hotel personnel activities
  
• 01.04 - The notion of occupational risk
  
  • 01.04.01 - Key definitions
    
  • 01.04.02 - Main elements of occupational risk
    
  • 01.04.03 - Classification of occupational risk factors
    
  • 01.04.04 - Aim of occupational risk assessment
    
• 01.05 - Self-assessment test
  
  

Short description of the chapter

Goals of this chapter:

• Acquaint with restaurant and hotel staff structure,
  
• Analyse risk factors that hotel and restaurant employees are exposed to in relation to their workplace, type of work performed and working tools used.
  
• Understand the notion of occupational risk,
  
• Briefly discuss occupational risk factors and learn to classify them.
  

This chapter will give the employee, the employer or the owner of an enterprise a general view of hazards present in workplaces in hospitality industry, to understand the complexity of the effect of these hazards on human health and the benefit of occupational risk assessment.

Restaurant and hotel staff structure

The sector under discussion involves two big areas of hospitality industry - hotels and restaurants. There are many jobs in hotels and restaurants, the majority of employees being involved in customer service working in the kitchen, restaurant and hotel.

Therefore, while assessing the workplace risk, it is important to assess the premises where the workplace is located

• Kitchen
  
• Restaurant
  
• Hotel
  

Restaurant staff is conventionally divided into two parts (by workplace):

• Waiting staff
  
• Kitchen staff

Description restaurant personnel activities

Depending on the workplace and the nature of work (the activity of an employee) we may distinguish work tools used by restaurant personnel (see Table1).

Table 1: Work tools used by restaurant personnel

Description of hotel personnel activities

Depending on the workplace and the character of work (the activity of an employee), we may distinguish work tools used by hotel personnel (see Table 2).

Table 2: Work tools used by hotel personnel

The notion of hazard

This chapter introduces key definitions, explains the difference between risk and hazard, teaches about occupational risk assessment and the purpose of assessment. The chapter also deals with the main elements of occupational risk and their classification.

Key definitions

Occupational risk – injury or any other employee health disorder due to harmful and/or hazardous factor (effect) in the work environment

Hazard – property or ability of an object (e.g. work material, work tool or process) with inherent potential to cause harm: electrical hazard, crushing hazard, cutting hazard, fall hazard, burn hazard etc.)

Hazardous situation - any situation where a person is exposed to hazard or hazards

Hazardous event (hazardous factor) - an event or factor which may cause harm

Harm – physical injury and/or health disorder or property damage

Preventive measure – a measure that eliminates or reduces risk

Main elements of occupational risk

Classification of occupational risk factors

The main harmful and hazardous risk factors that can affect health of employees in the sector under review:

Chemical (hazardous chemical substances or preparations)
What are the substances, which employees and where do they have contact with them (in the sector under review)?

• Cleaning, disinfecting, washing, substances, various aerosols…
  
• Cleaners, chambermaids, kitchen workers, auxiliary workers.
  

Biological (substances of biological origin, microbes, cell cultures, human endoparasites)
What are the substances, which employees and where do they have contact with them?

• Unprocessed food, flour dust, all sorts of waste – kitchen workers, dirty laundry – chambermaids, laundresses etc.
  

Physical
What to your opinion are physical risk factors? Give examples.

• Noise, vibration, electromagnetic field, hot, cold environment, lighting…
  

Ergonomic
Please provide examples how you understand these factors:

• Physical work load, work strain, adjustment of workplace to the employee
  

Psychosocial (factors that can cause mental stress to the employee).
What are the factors?

• Work conditions, work requirements, work organisation, work content, employee relations, employer – employee relations.
  

Physical (factors with inherent injure potential: work tools and their moving parts, lifting equipment, lifted load, vehicles, falling items, explosion and/or fire, liable to fall work tools etc.)

Give specific examples of physical risk factors that you encounter while performing a specific task.

When risk factors characteristic to each workplace are determined it is easier to define and assess risk in every particular workplace of the enterprise. Hereby, an employer or an enterprise owner may easily assess the exposure of each particular workplace to risk, basing on the types of involved hazards and adapting the study material to his enterprise.

Risk factors will be analyzed in more detail to give a better understanding of potential hazards to employees working in hotel and restaurant sector.

Aim of occupational risk assessment

Assessment of occupational risk in workplaces is a consistent analysis of the effect of hazards and harmful factors on employees in their workplaces, which enables to assess nature and degree of present or potential risk and to make decisions whether this risk is acceptable or unacceptable.

Residual risk is risk that remains after safety measures are applied.

It should be emphasised that except for a few types of injuries and health disorders (e.g. hazards or injuries or health disorders due to noise or poisonous substances), when the degree of risk can be estimated after measuring marginal duration of noise level or maximum permissible concentration of poisonous substances in the environment, most often risk assessment of is subjective.

The purpose of risk assessment is to define the probability of employee injuries and/or other health disorders due to a harmful environment factor or effect of the factors by assessing how the workplace, work environment, work tools, work conditions conform to employees safety and health requirements established in legislative acts on health and safety and to provide for preventive measures to protect employees from risk or reduce the risk as much as possible.

However, in all cases it is very important to identify possible hazards, know them, name and foresee safety measures in order to minimise risk.

Risk assessment enables to define if there are enough measures to assure employee safety and health, if there a necessity to take additional technical or organisational measures in order to avoid injuries and occupational illnesses.

Accidents at work place, cases of occupational illnesses can happen due to improperly arranged workplaces, non-observance of safety and health requirements which result in long-term loss of working capacity, invalidity or death.

Self-assessment test

Check your comprehension of presented study-material by answering questions in document D1.

Correct answers are available on page D2.