A celebrity chef has joined Harvey Weinstein in news headlines about sexual harassment in the workplace. A work environment that tolerates sexual harassment makes workers ill. It’s worker safety issue in need of much more attention.
Restaurant workers in California experience severe injuries and disability; OSHA pushes back against a judge’s ruling in poultry plant inspection case; Gov. Chris Christie vetoes a $15 minimum wage bill; and the women making Nike products in Vietnam often earn poverty wages and face grueling production expectations.
APHA Annual Meeting
Local New Jersey officials integrate worker safety into restaurant inspections; collect new insights on occupational risks
Food safety is at the top of the list for local restaurant inspectors in Rockaway Township, New Jersey. Recently, however, inspectors tested out the feasibility of adding a new safety checkpoint to the menu — the safety of restaurant employees. The effort was a success and one that organizers hope will ultimately lead to safer working conditions for food service workers statewide.
There are few factors that shape a person’s health as strongly and predictably as income. And while enforcing wage and labor laws may at first seem outside the purview of public health agencies, Rajiv Bhatia adamantly disagrees. In fact, he says that public health may wield the most persuasive stick in town.
Sharon Thomas-Ellison works hard for her paychecks at Jimmy John’s. On occasion when no one else is available, the 19-year-old has worked from 11 in the morning until 1 a.m. at night with just a 30-minute break — and it’s okay, she says, she needs the extra income.
Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
Our Washington Post local op-ed: DC meals shouldn’t come with a side of the flu
Our Washington Post local opinion piece addresses a problematic exemption in a DC law.
Food Safety & Nutrition
The Hands that Feed Us: Most food industry workers earn low or poverty-level wages
A Food Chain Worker Alliance survey of food industry workers — including agricultural and farmworkers, food processing and slaughterhouse employees, and those working in food distribution and retail — found that 86% earned low or poverty wages.
Most readers are probably aware that tomorrow, 2/14, is Valentine’s Day, but do you know what’s significant about 2/13? It’s not a cue to buy chocolates — it’s a reminder that federal law only requires restaurants to pay their workers an hourly wage of $2.13. That minimum hasn’t been raised since 1991; if it had […]
Food Safety & Nutrition
A new kind of guide for restaurant diners: do the employees have sick leave, living wages?
The worker-led organization Restaurant Opportunities Center United released this month a new type of diners’ guide, one that focuses on working conditions for the employees at 180 restaurants nationwide. The US restaurant industry employs 10 million individuals and is the fastest growing sector in the economy. More than half of restaurant workers, however, earn less […]