Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 5th Edition by Raymond Noe, John Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, Patrick Wright

Exercise 17

Keeping IHOP Workers Safe
On a February morning in South Charleston, West Virginia, breakfast at IHOP suddenly became hazardous. A kitchen worker was loading the dishwasher and grabbed the wrong cleaning product. Along with a cleaning agent called delimer, used to remove mineral deposits, the employee poured chlorine-based cleanser into the dishwasher. The two chemicals combined to produce a cloud of dangerous fumes with a strong bleach odor.
Minutes later, employees began to feel sick from inhaling the fumes. They began to have difficulty breathing. They called for emergency assistance and evacuated all the customers from the restaurant. Seeing the cloud entering the dining area, the customers quickly left. When police and firefighters arrived, they found that most of the customers had felt well enough to leave the area. However, one employee was semiconscious, and eight others were still having trouble breathing. The nine injured employees were taken to local hospitals.
The first responders directed everyone in the IHOP parking lot to move to a neighboring lot upwind of the fumes. They donned protective equipment, went inside, and determined that the fumes were coming from the dishwasher. At that point, they were able to separate the chemicals and ventilate the restaurant.
Employees at the local poison control center noted that mixing chlorine with other cleaning agents is a frequent cleaning error that produces chlorine gas. Because the gas has such a strong and unpleasant odor, people tend to move away from it quickly, before it can do much damage to the eyes and respiratory system. After the short-term irritation, symptoms subside quickly for most people, unless they already have respiratory conditions such as asthma. To prevent accidents such as the one at the IHOP, the bottle of delimer bore a label with a red-letter warning that it should not be mixed with chlorine-containing products.
IHOP representatives had no immediate public comment on the situation. Most IHOP restaurants operate independently of the main corporation because they are owned by franchisees. However, IHOP tries to instill in all its franchises and employees a set of core values: integrity, excellence, innovation, accountability, inclusion, trust, and commitment to making a difference in their communities.
Restaurant safety is of particular concern because these businesses employ many young workers; almost 30% of employees in eating and drinking establishments are under the age of 20. That means many restaurant workers are inexperienced and may not have the maturity or confidence to speak up when they see a hazard or aren't sure how to work safely. Consequently, young workers are more prone to being injured on the job. Along with the handling of chemicals, restaurants need to train their workers in how to carry food without straining muscles, how to avoid slipping and falling on greasy floors, and how to avoid electrical hazards, especially when outlets are near wet surfaces. Restaurant managers have taken these and other measures to protect their workers, but injury rates among young workers in restaurants remain higher than in other industries.
How do you think the restaurant's management could have prevented the incident from happening? What could managers do to create a safer kitchen environment?