r/science • u/eastbayted • 2d ago

Health Sick food service workers remain top driver of viral foodborne outbreaks in US

https://www.healio.com/news/gastroenterology/20250331/sick-food-service-workers-remain-top-driver-of-viral-foodborne-outbreaks-in-us
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u/FrighteningWorld 2d ago

One of the great ironies here is that food service jobs are often low paid with not enough benefits to justify taking sick days.

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u/LegallyDune 2d ago

Even in California, where sick leave is mandated for service industry workers, employers regularly pressure workers to come in to work sick. The culture is unlikely to change until managers and owners are held liable for it.

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u/Duelist_Shay 2d ago

I started a new job as a cook for one of those fast-casual dining places; got some sort of food poisoning from something I ate earlier in the day, which made me be on the toilet every other 5 minutes. I felt fine outside of that, and they still sent me home telling me not to come back for at least 48 hours of being symptom free.

This is my 4th kitchen job, and the only one to not only not pressure me into working while being sick, but actively took measures to make sure it didn't spread.

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u/greenappletree 2d ago

1/4 - I guess better than nothing - glad there are places like that.

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u/Duelist_Shay 1d ago

Couldn't agree more. I was actually kinda shocked they didn't give the whole "suck it up" schpeel

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u/swinging_on_peoria 2d ago

Feels like this should be a part of health code inspections. Inspector discovers sick workers, restaurant gets shut down temporarily and gets a bad quality grade.

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u/Dashiepants 2d ago

I have worked in the food service industry for more than 20 years as a bartender, granted mostly night shift, and have never in all that time encountered a Health Code Inspector. I only vaguely remember a visit from one being referenced by maybe two of the 8-10 restaurants I worked. You’d be shocked at how little they visit.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

They're supposed to come by once a year to provide a rating for the food service license in most states. More often if the restaurant fails certain metrics or receives complaints.

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u/IncendiaryIceQueen 2d ago

It actually depends on the state and the type of restaurant. Some are required inspections yearly, twice a year, or quarterly depending on the risk level of the food being served.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

True, it does vary by state health department requirements/laws.

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u/bythog 2d ago

It is in California and most of the US. Depending on symptoms they can be closed immediately. There are also 7 illnesses that have required reporting to the local health department.

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u/carcar134134 2d ago

The owner of our place got sent home one time cause he was sick during an inspection.

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u/ToMorrowsEnd 2d ago

can fix it easily. give workers a call in line. IF their boss pressures them to work sick the employee gets $1000 cash and the boss has to pay $10,000 in fines. and it's escalating, each offense the fine is multiplied into. 10th? the employee gets $10K, the company pays $100K. Just need proof of the pressure and sick. both are extremely easy today.

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u/ArrowShootyGirl 2d ago

I was a Starbucks supervisor in Chicago and it was the same. The city required us to have sick pay, but the store was so short-staffed that using it was like pulling teeth. I remember one manager threatening to squash my transfer because I didn't come in while I had norovirus, and another threatened me with a write-up because I had food poisoning and couldn't go more than 30 minutes without being sick.

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u/Leafy_Is_Here 2d ago

Yeah sick leave is mandated but it's only 5 days minimum a year and employers have the option to cap it at 5 days and have it accumulate over 12 months. So realistically, employees have less than 1 day of sick leave every 8 weeks

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u/nellapoo 1d ago

My daughter started a new line cook job and a month in got the flu really bad. Not her fault in the slightest but she was terminated for staying home for 2 days while she was super sick. Like throwing up sick. Why would you want someone coming in to cook food if they have the flu?!

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u/Legionnaire11 2d ago

I've never worked in a restaurant that didn't preach "if you're sick, stay away" as part of their food safety training.

I've also never worked at a restaurant that took that seriously. They always demand that everyone be there every day no matter what health or other personal issues were going on. Not that the employees could afford to miss a shift anyway.

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u/Da_CoffeeWizard 2d ago

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

Thought you were about to say every restaurant you've worked in sent you home when you were sick and didn't take it out of your next month's worth of hours

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u/PokeMonogatari 2d ago

That's not irony; it's causation

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u/Eradicator_1729 2d ago

Exactly. And the fact that there’s a high number of managers that pressure them to come in and work.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/Eradicator_1729 2d ago

Ok, I get that, but we shouldn’t be pressuring sick people to work in the food industry. Any manager that’s doing that is not just a jerk for wanting sick people to work, but also endangering their customers. There is literally no excuse for that kind of behavior.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/Eradicator_1729 2d ago

Yes, but the problem is dishonesty, not actually sick employees. In food service, sick employees should not work. Like, even if they wanted to. But yes, if someone is lying about being sick then that’s a problem, yes. The answer is still not to pressure sick people to come to work.

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u/Area51_Spurs 2d ago

I got terrible food poisoning from a place I probably spent a hundred bucks a week at. Stopped going there.

It’s dumb af when they do that. Costs them more in lost business than just paying out sick days.

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u/worldspawn00 2d ago

It also costs productivity because they're probably getting other employees sick too.

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u/Mogling 2d ago

Food poisoning has little to do with sick employees unless they have a few specific illnesses caused by food poisoning.

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u/Area51_Spurs 2d ago

I’m not saying I got the food poisoning from a sick employee.

I’m saying if I get food poisoning somewhere it’s pretty likely they’re the same type of place that has sick people work.

A place who had sick people work also probably isn’t properly managing that kitchen.

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u/Mogling 2d ago

I would disagree here. Even at good places employees work sick because of the way the industry is set up. A server could make $200 on a busy shift at a decent restaurant, more at a nicer one. If they only get 7.25/he in sick pay, they are incentiveised to hide being sick and work. Those same places will do very well on health inspections. I've seen it at luxury hotel restaurants and celebrity chef restaurants. I've seen super well cleaned and organized kitchens where "French Overtime" was common, you think they wouldn't let someone sick work? So it's not like the BoH is immune from these problems either. I've also seen places that will close half the dining room and limit covers because they are running short staffed due to sickness, but not many owners are going to be happy with that. It's a complicated issue, that is industry wide. COVID changed some things, but people quickly slipped back into their old ways.

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u/Area51_Spurs 2d ago

Ignorance is bliss. If I don’t know something is happening it doesn’t matter. Which is my point.

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u/WinterWontStopComing 2d ago edited 2d ago

Not only that, even when management is supposed to know policy regarding danger symptoms and when staff should legally be required to not serve/prepare/handle food for X amount of time, call offs are extremely limited and people are pressured to work.

Or safety net procedures just aren’t known or properly understood in the first place.

What is the point of trying to have a safety net when we are always diving two feet to the left of it?

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u/OSRSTheRicer 1d ago

Even if you have paid sick days, it's just for minimum wage since most restaurant employees are tipped...

Like when I worked in restaurants, I made 2.13 an hour before tips, even a normal 6 hour shift 95% of the money id make was tips. So literally cannot afford to miss it.

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u/Still-WFPB 2d ago

If you show up sick 3 days in a row, pretty sure your getting replaced unless you are in a syndicated (unionized) kitchen.

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u/redyellowblue5031 2d ago

I’m not proud of it at all, but I went to work sick many times when I worked in grocery as a part time employee that didn’t get any paid time off or benefits.

What do they expect when your head is barely above water?

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u/JanetSnakehole610 2d ago

Some places require you to bring a doctors note. Like if it’s a 24 hr bug who the hell is going to the doctor for that?! Only time I’ve seen someone get sent home is if it’s vomiting or diarrhea. But colds or other viruses are fair game apparently. And then of course everyone else gets sick. Ever since I got back into serving I have gotten sick much more frequently

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u/rainbowsunset48 2d ago

And of course, if you wear mask, you'll make half as many tips.