Pressures: duty of care, legal, professional and personal risks

Employers’ duty of care to their employees is a moral obligation and applies to employees’ business related travel as well as within the office setting or on the factory floor.

In addition to this moral responsibility, in many jurisdictions duty of care breaches are actionable before the courts through express or implied terms in contracts of employment, under the Health and Safety etc At Work Act 1974, and the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 which allows corporate bodies to be tried where a breach of a duty of care is so serious that it results in a person’s death. In the context of travel risk, many corporates employ specialist travel risk or travel security professionals to help the employers discharge this duty of care.

There is not a vast body of case law about employer breaches of duty of care to business traveller employees but there are notable cases before higher courts in the UK which make it clear what is expected of employers. For example:

Thomas Dusek v Stormharbour Securities Ltd (2016) before UK Court of Appeal, a senior executive died in a helicopter crash when inspecting a hydro-electric plant by helicopter. His employers argued that he was sufficiently senior to assess risks to himself, and that it was not feasible for them to conduct a risk assessment from their London-based offices. The Court rejected the arguments finding that, no matter how senior he was, his employers had a duty of care for him that could not be delegated to him. Also, the employers should have undertaken a risk assessment of helicopter flights in that location and if they had done so, could have directed him not to fly by helicopter.

There is a wealth of unreported cases and pre-action settlements. For example:

  • In a case settled before action in 2024, an employee who returned to work after an 18 months’ absence suffering from Crohn’s disease was sent to India where his residential accommodation was inside the factory where he was working. He became ill and local medical facilities were inadequate to treat him. Eventually, he had to be repatriated to the UK, where it was necessary to remove a section of his bowel. His employers’ insurers settled the matter in the sum of £800K.

Travel risk/travel security (TR/TS) staff help employers discharge duty of care obligations but, in some organisations, a ‘blame-culture’ operates. GSA Global recently published a case study highlighting 2024 example of this phenomenon.1

In GSA Global’s assessments of corporates’ travel risk management (TRM) arrangements since 2022 have regularly noted and made recommendations about the resources and resilience available to TR/TS staff who often are often ‘on call’ for a range of contingencies in addition to their core duties. Add in that TRM is dynamic and volatile whether through the growth in business leisure (‘bleisure’) expectations of travellers, or the incidence of force majeure and armed conflict, or the need for new specialist risk assessments (such as counter-compromise/espionage), we conclude that some TR/TS personnel face a range of legal, professional and personal challenges which are sometimes not fully understood by employers, leaving individuals and their employers facing twin perils of under-preparation or over-loading in respect of TRM.2

The rise in global travel

The analysis above sits against a backcloth of rapid post-COVID pandemic rises in business travel. Recent travel-related research suggest that corporate travel is predicted to generate $1.48 trillion in spending in 20243, and that 62% of CEOs expected their travel budgets to increase in 2024 compared to 20234. Mid-sized businesses (51%) with 201–2,000 employees were the most likely to increase their business travel spending in 2024, followed by large enterprises (50%) and SMBs (43%), and the top reason for increasing travel budgets was to expand into new markets (47%). Other key factors included attending more conferences and events (45%) and growing headcount (39%)5. It is likely from the foregoing that the need for global TRM will increase, with small and medium-sized corporates in the vanguard where, currently, TR/TS experience is not as well developed as in larger and more travel-mature organisations.

Some insights into the professionalisation ‘curve’

In 92% of the assessments conducted by GSA Global since 2022, we have recommended or made observations about the need for professional development pathways for TR/TS staff, noting the risks they manage. In a GSA Global survey of TR/TS staff in 2025, of respondents:

  • 71% agreed that they would recommend TRM as a career
  • 90% agreed that professional development is essential
  • 79% agreed that formal credentials/accreditation would help validate their expertise
  • 43% agreed that organisations provide sufficient professional development
  • 83% felt that their employer would support structured professional development of TRM staff

The case for a qualification or accreditation

There appears a compelling case for formal professional development for aspiring and in-post TR/TS members. More than 70 further education establishments in the UK offer qualifications in aspects of tourism and hospitality, but a relative handful mention travel. Still fewer mention TR/TS, and none appear to have insight into the strategic and operational requirements of the role, and equipping individuals for the high-impact judgments that are essential features of the role.

GSA TRM Directorate is pursuing with its internal training team and external experts the design of the professional development pathway that TR/TS professionals deserve; that will help protect employers striving to meet their duty of care obligations and keep business travellers safe and secure from foreseeable harms in a complex world where travel, and travel risk, demands are growing apace. If you have thoughts and views on this topic, please get in touch.

References

  1. ‘Lessons Learned: When Travel Risk Management Becomes Blame Game’. GSA Global (2025). Available at https://www.gsaglobal.com/blog/lessons-learned-when-travel-risk-management-becomes-a-blame-game. Accessed 26 April 2025.
  2. ‘Risk of deaths due to injuries in travellers: a systematic review’ (2022), Benjamin A Wyler, MD, MPH, DTM&H, Hannah M Young, MD, MPH, Stephen W Hargarten, MD, MPH, John D Cahill, MD, DTM&H, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 29, Issue 5, July 2022, taac074. Accessed 2 May 2025.
  3. ‘Global Business Travel Industry Spending Expected to Hit Record $1.48 Trillion in 2024’. GBTA (2024). Available at Global Business Travel Industry Spending Expected to Hit Record $1.48 Trillion in 2024 – Global Business Travel Association – GBTA. Accessed 2 May 2025.
  4. ‘The Value of Business Travel Report’ Travelperk (no date). Available at The Value of Business Travel Report | TravelPerk. Accessed 2 May 2052.
  5. ‘Business Travel Statistics: 100+ Key Trends & Data Points (2025)’. Travelperk (2025). Available at Business Travel Statistics: 100+ Key Trends & Data Points [2025]. Accessed 2 May 2025.