Grease, a Blocked Exit and a 17-Year-Old on the Slicer

Priority is set by 'how bad, how soon, how irreversible'.

1. Stop the slicer. Unplug it, remove the blade key if it has one, and tag it 'DO NOT USE - FAULTY'. An unguarded blade plus a taped cable is an amputation and electrocution risk that can materialise in seconds, and a 17-year-old with no training is the highest-risk person in the building.
2. Clear the fire exit. Move the 14 chairs and two trestles now, and check every other exit while you are at it - blocked exits are almost never a single location. Several hundred people are in the building tonight; this is the one hazard that turns a small fire into a disaster.
3. Make the corridor floor safe. Cone and sign it, post a staff member at each end, dry-mop, and degrease - a wet mop alone just spreads grease. Re-route staff carrying hot food away from that door.
4. Check the server who slipped. Ask about the fall, any pain, any hot splash, and record it even if they say they are fine - soft-tissue injuries often present the next morning.
5. Brief the pass and the dishwash team at the next natural break: no running, no carrying hot tureens through a wet corridor, report spills immediately.

Why this order: steps 1 and 2 address hazards that can kill tonight. Step 3 prevents a repeat of an injury that has already nearly happened. Steps 4 and 5 are about people and containment. Paperwork is important but it can wait thirty minutes - an incident book cannot unblock an exit.

Say no immediately, in person, and take the key.

On the facts alone, regardless of age

• No guard fitted, cable taped, no training, no supervision, and mid-service time pressure. Any one of those is enough to refuse; together they are indefensible. Speed is not a control measure - it is the opposite of one.

On age

• A 17-year-old is a young person under Kenyan employment and occupational safety law, and young workers are subject to extra restrictions on hazardous machinery and on work beyond their physical capacity. I would apply the precautionary position now and confirm the exact provision with HR and the safety officer rather than argue it in a corridor. Duty of care does not wait for the legal advice.

Practical handling

1. Reassign the commis to a safe task tonight, and tell him why: 'That machine is not safe and you have not been trained on it. It is not about you.' Reassurance matters - he was following an instruction.
2. Lock out the slicer until the guard is fitted and the cable replaced by a qualified electrician.
3. Arrange documented training by a competent person, with a sign-off in the training matrix, before anyone uses it.
4. Deal with the sous chef privately, not in front of the brigade. Explain the liability and the consequence, and record the instruction in the incident log - an instruction to breach a safety rule is a management issue, not a personality clash.
5. Escalate to the executive chef and HR; if the sous chef repeats it, it becomes a disciplinary matter.

Record tonight, before close of shift

• The near-miss: server slip with a hot tureen, time, location, names, witnesses, and the fact that nothing was reported at the time.
• The unsafe conditions: grease and water in the corridor, blocked fire exit and what was stored there, slicer with no guard and damaged cable, untrained minor assigned to it.
• The actions taken: slicer isolated, exit cleared, floor treated, staff reassigned.
• Signed entry in the incident book by the duty manager, copied to the safety officer. If any injury later turns out to be reportable, the contemporaneous record is what protects both the injured person and the hotel.

Investigate within 48 hours

1. Why is there grease in the corridor? Check the dishwash extract, the drain and the bin route. Fix the source; the cleaning schedule is the second line of defence, not the first.
2. Why were chairs at the fire exit? Almost always a storage shortage - find real storage, or the chairs will be back by Tuesday.
3. Equipment maintenance: is the slicer on a maintenance register? How long has the taped cable been there, and who signed off on it?
4. Training matrix: who else has been asked to use equipment they are not trained on?
5. Why is the incident book empty for six weeks? Either the hotel is exceptionally safe or nobody reports. Interview three staff and you will know which.
6. Update the risk assessment for the corridor and the kitchen - 14 months stale is not a live document.

Follow-up: written corrective actions with named owners and dates, reviewed at the next safety meeting, plus a walk of every exit and every piece of powered equipment in the building.