Hotel staff given panic buttons to curb groping after state passes law

‘Sometimes they don’t have any clothes on when you knock on the door and say, “House keeping”’

NEW JERSEY has become the first US state to require hotels to provide their staff with wearable panic buttons in an effort to tackle sexual assault.

Phil Murphy, the state’s Democratic governor, signed a bill yesterday requiring most hotels to provide their workers with the devices to summon help quickly in an emergency.

“I am proud to sign panic-button legislation to give hotel workers security and the ability to immediately call for help should they need it,” he said during a ceremony, surrounded by housekeepers from Atlantic City casinos.

The law takes effect in January and applies to hotels with 100 or more rooms. New Jersey is the first state to mandate the devices, although similar measures are under consideration in Il- linois, Florida and Washington state.

Several major hotel chains, including Marriott and Hilton, already plan to provide the devices to their staff.

It follows an attack in 2018, where a 51-year-old room cleaner was pushed into a room by a man who then sexually assaulted her at Bally’s casino in Atlantic City.

“The housekeepers were enraged after that,” said Ben Albert, from the Unite-here union.

“It’s a layer of protection for us,” said Daksha Parikh, a housekeeper at the Tropicana casino.

“Sometimes they don’t have any clothes on when you knock on the door and say, ‘Housekeeping,’ or they’re playing dirty videos on their laptop,” she said.