Hotel Maids to Get Panic Buttons

Today in the department of actions that shouldn’t be necessary but are: Several New York hotels say they’ll begin equipping housekeepers with panic buttons that will allow them to alert a security center if they feel threatened. The move comes after a meeting between hoteliers and the housekeepers’ union. Hotels have previously taken precautions, including sending attendants of the same sex as guests and having workers clean in teams, but following alleged assaults by former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Egyptian banker Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, workers have demanded better safety mechanisms.