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/mud074 2d ago edited 1d ago

The only time I have seen coworkers call in at restaurants for being sick is when they are debilitatingly sick to the point that they cannot work. Otherwise, gotta make rent. Missing a shift feels about the same as a $160 fine. The cultural norm in the industry is to give 0 fucks about making customers sick, so long as it's not an acute food poisoning that will be traced back to the restaurant.

And as for that, the amount of people I have worked with that are particularly careful with food safety standards even outside of worker illness is a lot lower than it should be

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u/volkmardeadguy 2d ago

once you add in the fact that everyone runs a skeleton crew, one call out exponentially increases everyone elses workload so you have that on your decision to be out sick as well

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u/ZenAdm1n 2d ago

I worked at a restaurant that overcame that by having 2 or 3 unpaid on-call workers per shift. This means scheduling around a shift you won't get called in for because even if someone calls in, they don't necessarily call in the on-call workers. I'd be scheduled 4 or 5 days plus an on-call or 2, meaning I only had one day a week I could count on to be off work and one day a week I couldn't count on being paid.

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u/foxdye22 2d ago

By the way, unpaid on call is illegal. If your time is occupied and you’re not free to go to another job or do whatever you want, you’re supposed to be compensated for that.

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u/evie_quoi 1d ago

Here’s a fun fact: a lot of my coworkers are here illegally. It’s very easy to manipulate people who are vulnerable. All of them allow - with a smile on their face - their breaks to be pushed or not offered at all. Management loves these people

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u/ZenAdm1n 2d ago

It may be illegal now, but things have changed since the 90s. (Except the minimum wage for tipped employees, of course)

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u/foxdye22 2d ago

It was probably illegal then, too, but they were taking advantage of workers who wouldn’t stand up for themselves. I’m not faulting you, I’m just saying it so that other people know their rights and don’t take on call work as a normal thing.

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u/soaring_potato 1d ago

I mean and knew their rights.

So many don't today. Let alone before you could find it online like super easily.

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u/ObligationSlight8771 2d ago

He probably meant the word per diem. We do the same at work. They aren’t in call per se, but are usually available for shifts like this.

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u/travinsky 2d ago

Unpaid on call is not illegal unless you are required to be on premise

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u/TheresWald0 2d ago

Jurisdiction based. It's illegal where I am.

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u/FriendlyDespot 1d ago edited 1d ago

The FLSA standard isn't limited to whether or not you're on work premises, it has to do with how free you are to use your time. The differentiation is whether you're waiting to be engaged, or engaged to wait.

If you're free to do regular everyday activities then you're waiting to be engaged. The classic example is going to watch a movie, and a reasonable period of time before reporting for work sits at around 3-4 hours from the time you're called. If you're not free to do regular everyday activities and are expected to report for work in less than 3-4 hours then you're engaged to wait.

If you're engaged to wait as an FLSA-covered employee then that time is legally considered time worked and should be compensated as such.

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u/travinsky 1d ago

It may not be common in the food service industry but I work in the elevator industry and all service techs are on an on call schedule worked out in advance. And they aren’t allowed 3-4 hours to leave their house. They also have company trucks and get paid the minute they leave their house so it’s not exactly the same.

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u/PrototypeChicken 1d ago

The company I worked for got around this by illegally making us contract workers...

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u/doublebubbler2120 2d ago

They did that at Trudy's in Austin, Texas. Coincidentally, one of their locations burned down. Burn, baby, burn! The owner, Gary, is an absolute dickhead.

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u/Mental_Tea_4084 2d ago

That sounds illegal

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u/KallistiEngel 1d ago

This should not be on the employees as it's a problem caused by management. Management needs to step in and get into the thick of it if one callout will severely impact service. Good managers do, I've seen it at some places I worked. Bad managers will do anything to avoid having to fill in on the line.

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u/volkmardeadguy 1d ago

cool but "this should be..." and "they could haves..." wont change the scenario facing many people daily

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u/KeyCold7216 2d ago

Back when I worked in fast food, our shift manager was literally sitting in a chair by the dish tank doing dishes and puking in a trash can for 8 hours because we didn't have any other managers to cover and our GM made them come in.

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u/DoctorRoxxo 1d ago

That’s when you call the health department on your way to work and say hey I’m currently throwing up and I’m on my way to this restaurant to work a full shift come visit me and say hi

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u/drewjsph02 1d ago

I worked in restaurants for 20 years and it sucked so bad when it was cold and flu season.

A sick customer or coworker comes in, passes it to someone else, and on and on until it’s been two months of sickness.

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u/Immersi0nn 1d ago

Mind you, that $160 "fine" should be the only negative you have for calling out sick. Sadly this is commonly not the case.