Legal Concept Working in Restaurant - Term Paper Example

Hospitality Law The hospitality law governs matters that are related to operating hotels, bars, restaurants, meetings, country clubs, spas conventional industries, and meetings, and the manner in which operators relate with the customers. It is a body of legal aspects that relate to food services, lodging industries, tourism and travel. Baum (2011) notes that this law functions in the same way as the homeowners’ association law, the entertainment law, and other laws that seek to guide the relationship of an employee with the client and offering of services. This paper is going to analyze the Hospitality law on the perspective of a restaurant employee. It will seek to show what is legal under the law, the rights of the employee and the client under the law, and circumstances that can lead to claims from the customer. Basically, the Hospitality law encompasses a wide array of laws including the law of tort, contract law, real estate law, the law of anti-trust, among others (Barth, 2001). The degree to which this law relates to such laws has continuously evolved and changed accordingly to meet the dynamics of the hospitality industry. Nevertheless, this law is used greatly to set standards and guidelines that hospitality operators and employers use in offering goods and services to their customers. Typically, this law covers the history of how hospitality law came into being, the impact that state civil rights and federal laws have on the hospitality industry, and discussion of contract law such as how a customer enters into a contract with the restaurant employees or issues regarding reservations and overbooking (Langford, 2011). With the use of internet to make reservations and orders being on the rise, the Hospitality law has evolved to include such issues, as well. In addition, in the current world both the customers and the employees know their rights and the channels that they can use to launch complaints or make claims. In this regard, the Hospitality law has continually evolved as new and better knowledge keeps on emerging. In the recent past, cases of food poisoning and awareness of food illness have been on the rise with more people being interested in getting information about the restaurant that they eat from. This has brought the Hospitality law in restaurants at the front center of public conscience. In matters related to restaurant and food services, terrorists’ attacks against hotels have raised the importance of having hospitality law that will govern international affairs especially in the quest of protecting the customers from harm. This law ought to cover many types of business that belong to the hospitality and tourism industry, but major emphasis is given to restaurants and hotels on a bigger scale since they have the largest number of hospitality clients. In this perspective, restaurant operators have several legal duties and obligations towards the customers (Baum, 2011). For instance, they are expected to provide their customers with safe and right amount of food and services, keep the customers safe, and avoid negligence as much as possible. Essentially, all restaurants have a number of legal responsibilities towards the employees and customers at large. Recent events from different parts of the world have continuously called for a law that can safeguard not just the customers, but also the employees and restaurant owners. Cases of food allergies have been on the rise making it necessary for restaurants and hotels to train their staff about ingredients found in different food packages as well as labels that contain wheat or peanuts. Restaurants and hotels must ensure and protect the confidentiality of all their customers as given by the law (McConnell & Rutherford, 2009). They ought to hire their employee, manage, and terminate them in the same manner as human resource managers of other types of business do. This would include advertising for positions, taking candidates through the recruitment process, preparing and executing the seemingly endless stream of contracts. In addition, restaurants are obligated to protect all their customers from criminal or civil harms such as theft and threat to life. For hotels, this can extend to protection of customers’ property left in the rooms and even protection from possible attacks from terrorists. With cases of terrorism in restaurant and hotels such as the Mumbai terrorist attacks being on the record, it is with no doubt important to develop measures that will help in minimizing such incidences. By checking the customers that come into a restaurant and installing proper security mechanisms, restaurants provide the much need protection of customers from harm. According to Baum (2011), the main purpose for the existence of restaurants is to provide food and food services to potential customers. In this regard, restaurants have a duty and obligation to sell food that is suitable for human consumption. The food being offered by a restaurant should be prepared in a healthy and safe environment, and should not harm the customer. The Truth in Menu laws has been enacted in many states to govern the description of the food in the menu and what is actually brought to the customer on the plate. This law aims at allowing the customers to make healthier and right choices of food to ensure that they receive exactly what they ordered. For instance, if customer orders ten wings of a chicken; they should receive the ten wings ordered and not nine. This means that when an employee breaches this law by offering something that contradicts with the order, they or the restaurant management may be liable to a claim by the customer. Another law that aims at the protection customers relates to proper information and warnings about the condition of a restaurant or food being offered. In particular, the federal government has enacted a plethora of food regulations which all restaurants are required to abide by (DuBoff & King, 2006). For instance, restaurants are required to provide warnings to their customers regarding trans-fats if they are being offered. In addition, restaurants are expected to protect their customers against slips or fall while in the premise, food poisoning and any other possible form of personal injuries that may be attributed to the state of the restaurant (Morris, Cournoyer, & Marshall, 2008). In large restaurants, issues such as anti-trust, supply chain, franchise agreements, labor disputes, and other commercial transactions are very common. It is the duty of the restaurant’s management to ensure that each and every employee conforms to the laws governing the operations of a restaurant. Primarily, when setting up the rules and regulations of a restaurant they ought to follow all the provisions of the Hospitality law and other laws that govern restaurant and hotel business to ensure that they reflect what is expected by the law. Morris, Cournoyer, & Marshall (2008) concurs that these laws govern the manner in which food is prepared, served as well as customer relations. In particular, nutritional descriptions, ingredients, preparation styles among others are highly looked into when it comes to issues to do with the Hospitality law. For instance, there was a bill which was once introduced in the New York Council that required the use of the phrase homemade or home-style to describe any food that is prepared from scratch (Langford, 2011). This implied that a restaurant that prepares its food from scratch should make it known to its customers that the food in that restaurant is homemade. Failing to note this in the menu would account to a breach of the law and the management of such restaurant may be held liable. Since restaurants are becoming more dynamic and competition is at its peak, the Hospitality Law has continuously advanced to meet these new changes and be more relevant to today’s world. The federal government, for instance, has for a long time how regulated how food is sold and advertised. This is to ensure that the restaurant sells the right food to the customers and that they maintain the right quality and quantity as required by the law. In addition, the national Restaurant Association is responsible for producing helpful guides to restaurateurs; which is an applied Nutrition Labeling Law guide. This law is helpful to the restaurant industry in understanding nutrition claims that restaurants can make on their menu (Langford, 2011). A customer can launch a claim against a restaurant for misrepresentation of the items or food listed in the menu. The menu acts as a guide to the customer on which food to order and which food is available at a restaurant. If a restaurant breaches the preparation of a menu or lists food that is actually not available or prepared differently from the one described in the menu, then the management may be liable. The Hospitality law is important to restaurant operators and managers because of its close relations with other laws. For instance, the Anti-trust laws regulate the conduct of businesses so as to preserve competition and prevent the occurrence of economic coercion. In regard to this, restaurant operators should not enter into a contract that relates to food prices and preparation, as well as terms of offering services at the restaurant and their scope of operations (McConnell & Rutherford, 2009). It implies that the management or the owners of the restaurant are responsible for breach of contract in relations to the above understanding. However, the restaurant operators may be held liable if the managers or owners of the restaurant violate the antitrust laws. In terms of contract law, there are two main types of contract that are applicable to the hospitality industry: management contracts and franchise constructs. A management contract will usually cover the responsibilities and duties between the owner of a restaurant and the management. This will determine the cover fees of the management, company’s ownership and investment, exclusivity, among others. On the other hand, a franchise agreement will dictate the rights, terms, and responsibilities between a franchisor and a franchisee. These agreements ought to be reviewed carefully by an attorney as they cover termination policies, indemnification, responsibilities of each party among others (DuBoff & King, 2006). Although restaurant operators are not required to necessarily be informed about the contracts the management or owners have entered into, it is important for the management to understand them for they directly or indirectly affect the operations of the business. A close relationship also exists between the Hospitality law and the law of Tort. Torts such as intentional acts, negligence, assaults and other are very relevant to the hospitality industry. These torts usually differ depending on the type of services that a restaurant offers and the type of customers that come to such a restaurant. For instance, waiters need to be aware of their duties to the customers when taking orders, availing the food, issuing the bill and collecting the money. In the case a restaurant offers alcohol, the waiters should be aware of their duties when dealing with customers who may be hostile of belligerent to each other or other customers (Barth, 2001). This law also covers the use of restaurant’s buildings, equipment and other assets. Just like other types of business, restaurant and hotel properties are subject for durability, taxation, fire safety, municipal property standards, business licensing, and other local regulations. In the perspective, the owners of the business as well as the management have a duty to make sure that the properties meet the set standards and that set good working conditions of the operators and also meet customer’s expectations. In addition, restaurants may be a target of civic officials under the nuisance abatement laws (Langford, 2011). These laws hold the owner of the property or management or both liable for the act of criminal activity done by their clients and if such acts results in repeated calls to the police for service within a given timeframe. Based on the above analysis of the Hospitality law, it is with no doubt that the owners of the restaurant, the management, as well as operators have a duty to comprehend what the provisions of the law are and adhere to them adequately. The law governs different aspects of operating a restaurant that aim at the safety of the customers and to some extent the safety of the restaurant. In this regard, restaurants should use the provisions of this law when creating their rules and regulations that are within the set standards and guidelines (Barth, 2001). In addition, it is important to explain the law to all the employee and make copies available to them in a bid to make sure that they understand what the law requires of them and that they act in accordance to the law. This will also help in minimizing cases of claims launched by the customers as well as creating good customer relations and restaurants reputation. In conclusion, the hospitality law governs matters that are related to operating hotels, bars, restaurants, meetings, country clubs, spas conventional industries, and meetings, and the manner in which operators relate with the customers. It is a critical aspect to the operations of any restaurant and acts as a guide to doing the right thing restaurant. The law basically governs the preparation of food, description, advertisement, and offering of services in a restaurant. It also points out the duties and responsibilities of the owners of the restaurant, the management and operators of a restaurant in meeting the needs of the customers. References Barth, S. C. (2001). Hospitality law: Managing legal issues in the hospitality industry. New York: Wiley. Baum, T. (2011). Hospitality management. Los Angeles: Sage. DuBoff, L. D., & King, C. O. (2006). The law for restaurants and others in the food industry. Naperville, Ill: Sphinx Pub. Langford, B. (2011). Hospitality law. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. McConnell, J. P., & Rutherford, D. G. (2009). Hospitality Law: What Were Teaching.Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 12(4), 56-93. Morris, K., Cournoyer, N. G., & Marshall, A. G. (2008). Hotel, restaurant, and travel law: A preventive approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. Read More