Hotels in Three States Must Now Supply Panic Buttons to Housekeepers

Starting next year, hotel housekeepers in Illinois, New Jersey and Washington state should be armed with panic buttons they can press in case of assault, a move that worker advocates say may or may not affect the number of workers' compensation claims by hotel staff. “Most of the claims I see are assaults by managers and co-workers, not hotel guests,” said Rich Marcolus, a claimants' attorney and co-chair of the New Jersey Advisory Council on Safety and Health. “Management's going to know how to get around a panic button, so I'm not sure how much good a panic...