Case Study: Analyzing Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management in Hotels

This case study examines the risk, crisis, and disaster management practices within a hotel, focusing on breaches in Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation, identified workplace hazards (chemical, mechanical, psychological, and manual handling), and the importance of risk assessment. T...Read More

HET301A RISK, CRISIS AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT
CASE STUDY
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1. Breaches in WHS Legislation with reference to case study..................................................3
2. Hazards within the workplace................................................................................................4
3. Risk Assessment to determine the priority of Risk................................................................5
4. Management Level Control to address noncompliance with legislation...............................5
5. Hierarchy of controls for the identified hazards....................................................................6
6. Cost benefit analysis for noncompliance, hazards and recommended controls.....................7
7. Consequences of not improving compliance and managing the workplace hazards.............8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Works Cited.............................................................................................................................10
Appendix 1...............................................................................................................................12
Appendix 2...............................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Hotels and resorts have become susceptible to the impact of crisis and disaster for the global
environmental change and the security risks. There are a lot of uncertainties that can create
crisis and disaster within the organization affecting the staffs and customers as well.
Considering these facts, the government has introduced certain laws and policies that help to
prevent hazards in the workplace. The case study of the hotel situated in The Rocks in the
heart of Sydney has been providing cheap service since its inception. The present report
would analyse the breaches in legislation and hazards and risks associated with it and its
ultimate impact on the workplace.
1. Breaches in WHS Legislation with reference to case study
According to New South Wales (NSW) legislations, Work health and safety laws (WHS)
require the parties to consult and cooperate in the management of workplace risk to protect
the health and the safety of the workers and all others who might be at risks at the work
(Workplaceohs.com.au, 2015). WHS Legislation supports WHS act 2011 and WHS
Regulations 2011 to guide the employers to comply with the safety laws.
WHS Act 2011 No 10 (Duty of Care) states that it is the primary responsibility of the
employer to ensure the safety of the workers by ensuring that the work environment, the
system of work, machinery and equipment are safe for the workers. Chemical should be used
stored, handled and used safely and there are adequate workplace facilities. The duty of Care
seemed to be completely ignored in the hotel of the given case study. Firstly, the hotel is
located in a risky area where robbery and assault are common and this threatens the safety of
the worker and the guests. Secondly, the lift is old and out of orders and thus the system of
work and equipment are not safe. Thirdly, the bottles of chemicals are not properly labelled
and no information on the safe use of chemicals are provided. There are several instances of
chemical injuries and some of them go unreported (Safework.nsw.gov.a, 2017).
Division 3 of WHS Regulation 2011 mentions it is the duty of the organization to offer first
aid equipment so that each worker has access to the equipment of first and staffs are trained
to administer it. However, in the given case, there is no proper medical provision for which
the staffs need to go to local doctors. Division 3 of WHS Act shows the importance of health
and safety Representative (HSR). The given case shows that the Health Safety Representative
have not completed HSR training and the HSR committee is made up of the staffs of
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administration area. Moreover, the committee is least effective in handling issues thus leading
to breach of law (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017).
As per the section 19 of WHS Act, the management of the workplace should provide
information, training and instruction regarding the type of work to be carried out, the nature
of risks and control measures. However, in the given case, the new staffs within the
organization does not undergo any training which affects their performance and staff turnover
is high (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017). Part 4.3 of WHS Legislation 2011 mentioned the risk
of confined spaces and the need to avoid it. However, the case shows that the function area
that has an accommodation capacity of 100 people has a booking of 150 guests. This can
result in severe accidents and thus it breached the law.
2. Hazards within the workplace
The analysis of the hotel of The Rock makes it evident that there are several hazards within
the organization that affects the workers as well as the guests.
Chemical hazards: This hazard is quite common in this hotel and there are several instances
to chemical hazards are reported. The chemical bottles are not labelled properly and the
suppliers do not provide accurate information about the ways to handle the hazards. The
staffs and the guest, for coming in contact with fumes, have also encountered breathing
difficulties (Case Study).
Mechanical and electrical hazards: The lift of the hotel is old and often remain out of
order. The reports of staffs' showed that last month the lift has broken down five times and
once a guest suffered a stroke. Lack of maintenance can result in serious accidents and even
death of the workers(Case Study).
Psychological Hazards: This hazard is also common in this hotel due to the lack of proper
working environment. The hotel is situated in a risky area and hence the employees remain
under the fear of assault and robbery. Ineffective training and motivation have resulted in the
frustration and the tiredness of the employees. This affects their psychological balance(Case
Study).
Manual handling: Manual handling risks can arise from pushing, pulling and lifting.
Improper HSR training and the lack of written occupational health and safety plan increased
the risk of Manual handling as the staffs are unaware of the risk and they do not receive
proper training(Case Study).
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3. Risk Assessment to determine the priority of Risk
Ineffective risk assessment within the organization can create a negative impact on the
organization. To evaluate the level of risks within the organization, a risk assessment has
been carried out (Refer to Appendix 1).
Risk assessment is the systematic process of describing and measuring the risks, which is
related to hazardous substances, process, actions and events (Covello & Merkhoher, 2013). In
the given case study, the hotel does not have any written health and safety plan. Moreover,
lack of proper training of the employees, maintenance of the equipment and work
environment have increased the scope of risk. The risk assessment showed that the risk of
death due to chemical injury is quite high. Moreover, the instance of long-term illness due to
chemical and mechanical hazard is also high.
The risk of obtaining medical attention and going for several days off due to psychological is
a hazard is medium. It is also seen within the case study that last month, an unusual number
of housekeeping staffs has been absent from the work. The rate of employee turnover is also
high. This is due to the high amount of risk involved. The instance of the risk of requiring
first aid from manual handling is medium (WorkCover NSW, 2014).
4. Management Level Control to address noncompliance with legislation
The management of the hotel is responsible for maintaining compliance with the legislation.
The management can employ some control to ensure that health and safety laws are followed
within the organization.
Reporting of the Breach of Law
The supervisor is responsible for the initial identification and the notification of the breach.
After carrying out assessment and investigation, the super visor should report the same to the
Health and Safety Committee. This committee is responsible for consulting with the resident
and owner and take corrective action.
Implementing Duty of Care Checklist
To prevent non-compliance of legislation, the management is responsible for preparing the
duty of care checklist that would create knowledge about the hazards and risks associated
with the work. The management is responsible for creating active and visible leadership by
offering strategic direction through consultation and communication (Safety.uwa.edu.au,
2016).
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Development of WHS Policy
The hotel should develop WHS policy based on NSW legislation. There showed be written
health and safety plan. Failure to abide the policies can result in serious punishment and
fines. Formation of Health and safety committee within the organization would help to
address health and safety matters involving a representative from senior management, and
general staffs. There should also be an Emergency Planning committee for handling the
emergency within the organization.
Regular Checking of work equipment
All the equipment of the hotels like the lifts, electrical gadgets, and other machinery should
be checked properly in order to prevent any accidents or hazards. It is the responsibility of the
management to ensure a proper working environment for the employees and guests
(University of Wollongong Australia, 2015).
5. Hierarchy of controls for the identified hazards
As per the WHS Regulation 2011, the management of the organization should be responsible
for implementing specific control measures within the organization to eliminate the risks. The
Hierarchy of Hazard control that would be applicable in this case is illustrated below:
Figure 1: Hierarchy of Hazard control
Source: (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017)
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Elimi
nation
Substi
tution
Engineeri
ng
Controls
Asmnsitr
atvie
Controls
Person al
Protective
Eq ui pment

The first stage includes elimination of risk and regular checking of the lifts and other
electrical gadgets that are used by the guests and the employees can do this.
Substitution of risk is done by implementing risk control measures. The employees should be
properly trained to handle different equipment (Reese, 2015). The organization should oh
health and risk committee to assess the risk associated with different levels. The chemical
bottles should be labelled and the employees should have the knowledge to use them properly
(Amyotte et al., 2009).
Engineering control is the strategies used for protecting the workers. This prevention method
is quite costly but it ensures safety and security of the workers. Employing Fume hood, Bio
safety Cabinet to ensure safety.
Administrative control is also essential, in which the management of the hotel needs to focus
on employee training, preparing written health and safety measures and creating warning
labels. Workplace Hazardous Material Information system can be effective in this case (Wu,
2012).
Since the hotel staffs handle chemical staffs and other electrical equipment and fire, Personal
Protective Equipment is essential. This can include gloves, uniform, hard hats, safety glasses
and safety footwear.
6. Cost benefit analysis for noncompliance, hazards and recommended controls
Cost-benefit analysis is the decision-making process that compares the cost and the benefit of
a course of action and its impact on the organization (Sinden, 2016). In this section, a cost-
benefit analysis of the noncompliance and the recommended controls would be carried out.
The cost of hazards and noncompliance to WHS laws are listed below:
 If the organization does not follow the laws then it can result in severe accidents. For
instance, the lack of maintained of lifts has resulted in the stroke of one aged guest.
 Non-compliance to the handling of chemical and hazardous substance can also result
in severe injuries. For instance, improper labelling of bottles has resulted in several
accidents.
 Non-compliance to improper training and knowledge sharing resulted in contact burns
to hands and burns to eyes and even breathing difficulties.
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 Non-compliance can lead the management to pay fines that would generate negative
publicity. Moreover, strict investment from the legal authority can also result in the
permanent closure of the organization.
The benefits of the recommended controls are:
Formation Safety Committee: The benefit of forming safety committee is that they would
focus on identifying the policies and programs that would lead to the safety of the employees.
This committee would be responsible for proper checking of the equipment and machinery
within the workplace to prevent hazards (Health and Safety Authority , 2017).
Offering Personal Protective Equipment: This would benefit the employees to handle
chemical studs or sharp objects carefully and to prevent accidents. The employees would
develop a sense of belongingness and their absenteeism would decrease followed by
employee turnover.
Training of safety and common employees: All the employees within the organization
should be trained to their work. They should be trained to handle hazards and risk. This
would help in reducing the risk of accidents (Chiang, 2000).
Development of health and safety policies and written plan: This would benefit the
organization in abiding the established NSW legislation related to health and safety. Thus, the
goodwill of the hotel would increase as the employees and guests would get safety and
security.
7. Consequences of not improving compliance and managing the workplace hazards
The consequences of not improving compliance and inefficiency in handling hazards can be
serious. The fatal accident is common if laws are not maintained. There is a risk of injury for
the employees as well as that of the guests visiting the hotel (Dai et al., 2015). If the Health
Safety Committee is not active then it can increase the risk of hazards. This committee
overlooks congestion in the function area and this can result in severe fatal accidents
(Reason, 2016).
Non-compliance and increased hazards can increase dissatisfaction among the employees and
guest resulting negative publicity of the hotel. The employee turnover would increase and
none of the employees would able to provide effective service to the customers. The legal
authority in NSW can provide charges on the organization for which the organization needs
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to pay fines. In some case, the hotel can be closed on a permanent basis. Hence, it is essential
to comply with the established legislations (Hale et al., 2015).
Conclusion
The present report evaluates the hazards within the hotel given in the case study. The hotel
has disregarded the established laws in NSW related to health and safety and this has
increased the accidents. Lack of training of the employees and proper intervention of the
management has further worsened the situation. The report provides suitable
recommendation to comply with the laws and prevent hazards.
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Works Cited
Amyotte, P.R., Pegg, M.J. & Khan, F.I., 2009. Application of inherent safety principles to
dust explosion prevention and mitigation.. Process Safety and Environmental Protection,
87(1), pp.35-39.
Chiang, L.C., 2000. Strategies for safety and security in tourism: a conceptual framework for
the Singapore hotel industry. Journal of tourism studies, 11(2), p.44.
Covello, V.T. & Merkhoher, M.W., 2013. Risk assessment methods: approaches for
assessing health and environmental risks. Berlin : Springer Science & Business Media.
Dai, H., Milkman, K.L., Hofmann, D.A. & Staats, B.R.., 2015. The impact of time at work
and time off from work on rule compliance: The case of hand hygiene in health care.. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 100(3), p.846.
Hale, A., Borys, D. & Adams, M., 2015. Safety regulation: the lessons of workplace safety
rule management for managing the regulatory burden.. Safety science, 71, pp.112-22.
Health and Safety Authority , 2017. Safe Hospitality.
Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2017. Work Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10. [Online] Available
at: https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/2011/10/part5 [Accessed 25 Aigust 2017].
Reason, J., 2016. Managing the risks of organizational accidents.. London : Routledge.
Reese, C.D.., 2015. Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach.
London: CRC press.
Safety.uwa.edu.au, 2016. Roles and responsibilities. [Online] Available at:
http://www.safety.uwa.edu.au/management/about/accountability [Accessed 22 August 2017].
Safework.nsw.gov.a, 2017. DUTY OF CARE AND DUTY TO CONSULT. [Online] Available
at: http://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/law-and-policy/employer-and-business-obligations/duty-
of-care-and-duty-to-consult [Accessed 25 August 2017].
Sinden, A., 2016. Cost-Benefit Analysis. Encyclopedia of Environmental Law:
Environmental Decision Making, pp.1-17.
University of Wollongong Australia, 2015. WHS LEGISLATIVE COMPLIANCE
GUIDELINES.
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WorkCover NSW, 2014. Hazpack: MAKING YOUR WORKPLACE SAFER: A PRACTICAL
GUIDE TO BASIC RISK MANAGEMENT.
Workplaceohs.com.au, 2015. NSW Legislation. [Online] Available at:
http://workplaceohs.com.au/legislation/nsw-legislation [Accessed 25 August 2017].
Wu, S.L., 2012. Factors influencing the implementation of food safety control systems in
Taiwanese international tourist hotels. Food Control, 28(2), pp.265-72.
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Appendix 1
1. How likely is it to be that bad?
++
Very likely
Could happen
any time
+
Likely
Could happen
some time
-
Unlikely
Could happen,
but very rarely
- -
Very unlikely
Could happen, but
probably never
will
Chemical
hazard that can
lead to death
1 1 2 3
Long term
illness or
serious injury
from chemical
and mechanical
hazard
1 2 3 4
Medical
attention and
several days off
work from
psychological,
chemical and
mechanical
hazard
2 3 4 5
First aid
needed for
manual
3
4 5 6
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handling and
mechanical
hazard
Table 1: Risk Assessment Matrix
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Appendix 2
Recommendations Action Plan Time Limit
Formation of Safety
Committee
 Election from the
staffs
2 months Taking Oaths
 Assessing
Responsibility
Offering Personal Protective
Equipment
 Carrying out Risk
Assessment
1 month
 Consulting the staff
about their safety
needs
 Providing them
required equipment
Training of safety and
common employees
 Organising a training
committee
6 months
 Assessing the
training needs
 Involving the
employees in
training program
Development of health and
safety policies
Reviewing the established
regulation
6 months
Assessing the risk of the
organization
Consulting the employees
about the risks
Table 2: Action plan for implementation of recommendations
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