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
17.3k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

530 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

148

u/barontaint 2d ago

In America almost all jobs like that are what's called "at-will" employment. You can get fired for any reason as long as it's not because you're a member of a protected class(disabled, race, religion) is the cause for firing, even it is they usually just make something up. It's hard enough to get unemployment after you're fired much less be able to successfully sue for wrongful termination or anything like that.

59

u/noahjsc 2d ago

Damn thats fucked up.

If my hours are cut for being sick I have a wrongful dismissal case up north here. Didn't realize your labor laws really had so little protection. But some states do have extra laws from a cursory search.

43

u/KallistiEngel 2d ago

Yes, correct. At-will is not carte blanche for the employer. They still have to follow state and federal laws. But many workers don't know their rights and/or have a defeatist attitude about them.

14

u/Shootemout 2d ago

for good reason, if you try to take them to court if the business is smart they will delay and contest everything meanwhile you have bills to pay. you will have to get another job and then you have to hope that if you gotta make an appearance that it wont interfere with the new work hours.

gave up on a case against taco bell because of the above reason, just took it on the chin since the new job i got was significantly better and an actual desk position. rgm sent me to work at her husband's store- that i never worked at before, shift was already short staffed, busiest store in the area, the drive through times were awful as a result. She fired me and I was going through the process of unemployment and whatnot.

I have a lot of labor grievances with Tacala- the folks who own taco bell, as they promote a myriad of straight illegal things to do like (not officially obv) time/wage theft from employees to save stores on labor. When I got a new job working for a temp agency that later converted me but while I was at the temp agency I got a notice that a hearing was scheduled- during my work hours. Couldn't go and everything was dropped as a result. Got the new job before unemployment kicked in so I couldn't even schmooze off of that either

6

u/KallistiEngel 2d ago

I obviously can't comment on your personal situation, but the state department of labor often handles claims of labor law violations. It is not entirely or even mostly on the employee. You bring your claim to the labor board.

This is the kind of thing I mean when I talk about not knowing your rights. You only have to hire a lawyer if your wrongful termination was due to a reason other than state or federal law (e.g. violating a clause in your contract). If your termination violated federal or state law, either the DOL or your state labor department investigate it: https://www.usa.gov/wrongful-termination

Taco Bell is owned by Yum! Brands (I also used to work for them). Is Tacala maybe a large franchisee? A quick search says Tacala has 300 Taco Bell locations in the south, but that's all the info I've got on them.

2

u/CustomerSuportPlease 2d ago

Or they just can't afford to hire a lawyer to actually pursue their claim.

3

u/KallistiEngel 2d ago

The state department of labor often handles claims of labor law violations. It is not entirely or even mostly on the employee. You bring your claim to the labor board.

This is the kind of thing I mean when I talk about not knowing your rights. You only have to hire a lawyer if your wrongful termination was due to a reason other than state or federal law (e.g. violating a clause in your contract). If your termination violated federal or state law, either the DOL or your state labor department investigate it: https://www.usa.gov/wrongful-termination

12

u/KallistiEngel 2d ago

Every state has at-will employment. That's the default model in the US (except in Montana and maybe 1 other state iirc). You do still have legal rights under at-will, it doesn't give employers carte blanche. The idea that it does only benefits employers. There are federal and state labor laws they need to follow, and consequences for not doing so.

You're right that it can be hard to enforce your rights, but the more workers that stand up for themselves the harder it is for employers to get away with violating them.

10

u/Goosetiers 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's so discouraging, with how much the average worker is struggling even full-time to meet basic standards. The time and cost for an employee to litigate any of that, vs just dealing with it and finding other employment is often the difference between eating/losing your place to live.

You're aware of all this I'm sure, but the average working American living paycheck to paycheck has time for one thing, working. Another bonus for all the companies making sure we get paid as little as possible I guess.

1

u/KallistiEngel 2d ago

I am well aware of it, I used to be in the food industry myself and it's what ignited my fire for worker's rights.

Yes, employees working full time and struggling to make ends meet are not going to have much energy for litigation. This is why labor departments exist though, and if you're lucky your area will have a worker's center that can also help. I've personally received payouts for labor violations I wasn't aware of due to the state labor department without having to lift a finger (they conducted a time-clock audit of a large former employer, and there were rounding errors with the time clocks resulting in underpayment).

2

u/barontaint 2d ago

I spent 20yrs in the restaurant industry. I'm glad you had those outlets to complain to and get results, but unless I lived in crappy states and worked for awful places that is not my or many of fellows in the industry have experienced. Don't get me started on how many places that got PPP loans while not helping staff during covid but got a new summer home or cars instead

4

u/Disorderjunkie 2d ago

This is a common misconception about at-will employment. They cannot fire you for ANY reason, actually there is much more they cannot fire you for in every at will state than just protected classes.

For example, you can absolutely sue your employer in an at will state if they fire you BECAUSE you were sick for a week with covid, and it’s proven they didn’t take steps to make reasonable accommodation. They can fire you without telling you why whenever they want, but if they actually give you a REASON, i’d go talk to an employment lawyer.

3

u/Immersi0nn 1d ago

So basically, they can't fire you for just any reason, but they can fire you for no reason.

1

u/FesteringNeonDistrac 2d ago

Yeah you basically have to get them on tape saying "I'm firing you because you're black." Otherwise the tiniest shred of cause is enough.