Panic Button Systems for Hospitality – State of Illinois Update
Robert Garry
Offering a communication platform as a service (CPaaS) for large telecommunication providers that enables white-labeled POTS line replacement and wireless services.
While Covid-19 was running rampant throughout the nation, legislation mandating panic button systems was put on hold while the hospitality industry figured out how to manage through this health crisis. Now that there seems to be a light at the end of this long, dark tunnel, state and city governments are back to putting safety first for employees in this industry, and Illinois is first out of the gate to re-institute this mandate.
Beginning March 1,2021, hotels and casinos in Illinois will be required to provide certain workers access to a safety button or notification device that alerts security staff.
The Hotel and Casino Employee Safety Act (S.B. 75) requires all employees working alone in guest rooms, restrooms or casino floors to be supplied with a safety or notification device at no cost to said employees.
Similar measures have been passed in New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Long Beach, Sacramento, Seattle and more. Several major hotel chains have voluntarily pledged to make safety devices available to workers by 2021.
In almost all cases, the panic button must be a separate device (not an app on a smartphone or tablet phone) that is on the person at all times. It is also not to be reliant on a customer’s Wi-Fi network. Many of these mandates state that it needs to be on its own network due to response times and reliability that the system is always up and running.
Something to consider is the current PPP loan, Round 2 offerings being provided by the government. There have been new line items added to this round regarding what the funds can be spent on, including safety equipment for employees. Panic button systems definitely fall under this category.
Please contact us if you would like more information on areas that are passing laws and ordinances. We can also share what needs to be included in the solution for compliance, and happy to provide what our system’s capabilities are for panic buttons.
About Rob Garry - For more than 30 years, Rob has been running his own businesses and working with and for the largest communications companies in the world, and is currently co-founder and CEO of SensLynx, an IoT solutions provider for Panic Button Systems, Refrigeration Monitoring, Fleet Tracking, Wireless Internet backup, Out-of-Band Management, and other IoT-based monitoring applications.