Complaint Review: Holiday Inn

My issues with the local Holiday Inn stemmed from another report I had filed on here against Lazer Claims Investigations and Security Services. The Holiday Inn that this report is about contracts Lazer Claims Investigations and Security Services for their security guard services.

I was once an employee of Lazer Claims Investigations and Security Services. When there were safety issues at a site I was working (not the Holiday Inn), the owner ignored my concerns. After I started to press the issue, the owner of Lazer Claims Investigations and Security Services, Mr. Lester Beam, conspired with the brother-in-law (Mr. George Tingle) of the owner (Tommie Cheramie) of the site (Ocean Marine Contractors) to fabricate false statements about me so that he'd have a "legitimate" reason to fire me.

On July 18, 2014, I forwarded my concerns to Mr. Kenneth H. Osteen of Landcom Hospitality Management, the franchisee that owns the local Holiday Inn. I notified him of the illegal actions that Lazer Claims Investigations and Security Services had done. In particular, I mentioned the following:

• In 2011 Lester Beam and Brenda Beam threatened to rip off an employee, myself, by stating that with no timecard turned in they don't have to pay an employee for time worked.

• In August 2012 Lester Beam threatened to fire me while I was in a hospital bed. The reason he gave was because I had been missing too much work. I had only been in the hospital for a week, doctors said I'd be in there a week longer, and prior to the hospitalization I had only missed two days of work in over a year.

• In February 2014 Lester Beam refused to compensate employees for a two-hour mandatory safety meeting they attended. It required a complaint to be filed with the U.S. Department of Labor to get him to compensate employees for the two-hour safety meeting they had attended.

• After I filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor Mr. Lester Beam started to slander me by telling employees he had to cancel the safety meetings because I had a problem with the meetings. I never had a problem with the meetings. He just didn't want to admit to his wrongdoing.

• For two years Mr. Lester Beam refused to address a safety issue with a cart which had no breaks and the accelerator pedal would often stick as well as issues with fires at the Ocean Marine Contractors Gibson, LA site.

• After mentioning to the security guard site supervisor about possibly contact OSHA I was harassed by Mr. Beam each week following:

  • June 17, 2014 - Mr. Lester Beam made up false allegations of me having a short temper and of me damaging the guard shack. He refused to give details of when the short temper incident occurred.

  • June 24, 2014 - I was written up for kicking a hole in the wall and for sleeping on the job. The hole was an accident that he knew about. Mr. Lester Beam made false allegations that he caught me sleeping along with Mr. George Tingle, brother-in-law of Ocean Marine Contractors. Writeup stated that next infraction would result in dismissal. That was my first and only writeup in almost four years.

  • July 1, 2014 - Brenda Beam claimed I was being moved to the Morgan City, LA site as all the guards were being moved around, which was not true.

  • July 8, 2014 - My employment was terminated for the same reason as on the writeup, even though no new infractions occurred.

I never received a response from Landcom Hospitality Management. A few months later Lester Beam hired an attorney, Nicholas F. Larocca, Jr. Mr. Nicholas Larocca submitted false statements to the National Labor Relations Board. He claimed that I was rightfully terminated and that I was banned from all of his client's client's sites. I found this odd considering I never had any issues with any of his clients, except for Ocean Marine Contractors. One of Mr. Lester Beam's clients was the local Holiday Inn.

After Mr. Lester Beam settled out of court with me, I decided to investigate the matter of me being banned by all of his clients. On March 9, 2015, I sent a letter to Mr. Elie Maalouf, CEO of Intercontinental Hotel Group (parent corporate entity that owns the Holiday Inn brand name). I sent the letter to their Atlanta, GA address.

I waited for about a month and a half for a response. I didn't receive one. So, On April 20, 2015, I sent a letter to Landcom Hospitality Management with attention to their registered agent, Mr. Charles R. Johnson. To ensure that the letter was received, it was sent via certified mail.

Two days later, I received a response from the General Manager of the local Holiday Inn, Ms. Sharon Howell. Below is the response I received via email:

As of this date I am not aware of nor have I banned you from this property. If you would like to contact me regarding this matter please feel free to do so via e-mail. If you should choose to dine in Morgan’s or utilize the property for guest room needs I would only ask that you refrain from discussing your lawsuit. The employees here nor myself have any interest in this ma.er. Again, if you wish to discuss the ma.er further please feel free to contact me.

Respectfully,

Sharon Howell

General Manager

Holiday Inn Morgan City

I never had any intentions of going to the establishment to start talking about the lawsuit. However, if someone would have asked me about Mr. Lester Beam or his company, I sure wouldn't hold my tongue. By this response, it was quite apparent Ms. Sharon Howell didn't care about the immoral and illegal actions Mr. Lester Beam had committed. Since she had chosen to turn a blind eye to his illegal actions and lack of concern for safety, I responded to her email to let her know that I would not ever dine at the Holiday Inn.

I decided to do a little bit more investigating. I looked up the record for the Holiday Inn restaurant (Morgan's) with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. It appears to be listed as Holiday Inn Lounge.  below are the last two inspections:

• 3/23/2015

  • 1 Critical Violation Corrected - *2513 Chlorine sanitizer concentration for warewashing is not between 50 -100 p.p.m. at 75ºF

  • 3 Non-Critical Violations

    • 915 - Food handlers are not wearing proper hair restraints.

    • 3701 - Floor is not maintained level or in good repair.

    • 305 - A current state food safety certificate is not conspicuously posted

• 12/17/2014

  • 1 Critical Violation Corrected - *2501 - Food contact surfaces and utensils are not clean to sight and touch.

  • 1 Non-Critical Violation Corrected - 1107 - Bulk containers are not properly labeled.

  • 2 Non-Critical Violations

    • 2501 - Non-food contact surfaces of equipment have an accumulation of dust, dirt, food residue and other debris.

    • 305 - A current state food safety certificate is not conspicuously posted.

I will be writing to Landcom Hospitality Management to let them know about this report. I will also be letting them know that due to them condoning such illegal activities, I will be boycotting all of their properties.

It is a shame when a corporation gets to the point to where they don't care what illegal actions their contractors do. It's even more of a concern when they turn a blind eye to a contractor that illegally fires his employee due to the employee's concern over safety.

I guess the Holiday Inn, Landcom Hospitality Management, and Ms. Sharon Howell don't care if the safety of guests are at risk. After all, who's to say that Mr. Lester Beam wouldn't do the same to one of his employees working at this Holiday Innthat would discover unsafe working conditions?