A few germs with your Red Lobster or Olive Garden?

[Robin Garr]

EEEUUUWWW ... I just got this in Email, and it just seems wrong on several levels. Links below click through to a petition:

It's flu season, but when you sit down in a restaurant, the last thing you want to think about is a waiter with a cough carrying your breadsticks or a sous-chef with the flu coating your appetizer in a fine glaze of phlegm. And yet if you’ve eaten at a Red Lobster or an Olive Garden, there’s a good chance your food was prepared, handled, or served by a sick worker.

Darden, the massive conglomerate that owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster, doesn’t offer its workers paid sick days, even though studies show that two thirds of workers who don’t get time off to recover come to work sick. The danger posed by this policy is very real -- last year, a server at an Olive Garden in North Carolina came to work despite being diagnosed with highly-contagious Hepatitis A, leading to thousands of emergency inoculations and a class action lawsuit.

And yet Darden has refused to consider changing its policy on sick days.

Click to tell Darden, the owner of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, to let sick employees stay home.
http://action.sumofus.org/a/darden/100/236/

With wages as low as $2.13 an hour, many workers at Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and other Darden restaurants can’t afford to take time off when they get sick, and some managers even threaten to fire sick workers who stay home. And Darden can clearly afford to offer workers a better deal -- it’s one of the most profitable restaurant chains in America, and it’s given its CEO, Clarence Otis, Jr. a 225% raise since 2005

The restaurant industry is one of the fastest growing employers in the country, and with over 2,000 locations and prominent brands like Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Capital Grille, and more, Darden is the largest full-service restaurant chain in the world. As cities and states throughout the U.S. consider paid sick days legislation, a change in Darden’s policies will have a ripple effect throughout the sector and prove that restaurants can give workers a fair deal.

When it comes to abusive practices at Darden-owned restaurants, the lack of sick days is just the tip of the iceberg. Workers are also subjected to low pay, frequent wage theft, racial discrimination, and lack of opportunities for promotion.

Click to tell Darden it's long past time to work with its employees to improve conditions and provide sick days:
http://action.sumofus.org/a/darden/100/236/

This isn't just at large corporate chains. This is pretty common practice everywhere.

Until I started working at JCPS, I never had any paid sick days at any place I worked, (even in large chain hotels) unless I was on salary.
Even then, going into work with a case of the crud is kind of the way it is. Most places are (under) staffed to the point that if someone doesn't come to work, then all your co-workers work loads were so overwhelmed that service would generally suffer. Unless you could find some body willing to work on their day off to cover you.
Not to mention the fact that from a fiscal standpoint as a "paycheck to paycheck" hourly paid employee, it was usually better to try to suffer through it rather than stay home.

Unless you are literally on your deathbed, most people are begged to come into work by whoever your manager is that you are trying to call in to. In foodservice, it's not like the work you perform can pile up on your desk and can be put off until the next day.

Prime example, I was moving into my new home and was trying to get as much moved before my shift started. I was trying to open a package of tie down straps and sliced my hand open with a knife requiring several stitches and had a big old nasty bandage wrapping it up. But I still worked that night and of course we were slammed. I'm fairly certain that the folks in the dining room wouldn't have been too pleased to know that I was handling their plates with a nasty bandage on. While it wasn't seeping, it wasn't exactly the most sanitary looking thing by the time the shift was over.

[Robin Garr]

I hear you, Dan, but bear in mind also that at most indies, everyone is in it together.

But loyalty takes on a different shade at a mega-corporate chain. From the linked article: "Darden can clearly afford to offer workers a better deal -- it’s one of the most profitable restaurant chains in America, and it’s given its CEO, Clarence Otis, Jr. a 225% raise since 2005 ..."

When we think long and hard about it, too, while you make it sound noble to go the extra mile so your peers don't get slammed, when you consider the issue of exposing food-service customers to flu-like ailments, it might be time for a re-think.

Quite honestly as a consumer/diner I don't perceive indies as being more safe in this regard.

Robin- While I'm sure Darden is rather corrupt, in many regards, 99% of the places I worked were indies and there is not a single restaurant I've worked at that hasn't pressured me to come in while sick. Not one. It's expected that you will work sick unless you can seriously not stand up. Every manager I've ever had would also say otherwise, but it was made abundantly clear that it would be "duly noted" if I ever took a sick day. I've been afraid to call in sick the entire time I've been in the industry.

[Robin Garr]

Robin- While I'm sure Darden is rather corrupt, in many regards, 99% of the places I worked were indies and there is not a single restaurant I've worked at that hasn't pressured me to come in while sick. Not one.

Too true, Jeremy. Not raggin' on you, but if you'll take a look at my post two above yours, I addressed this dilemma without really having an answer to it. I won't repeat myself at length, but my two basic points were (1) a mega-corporate chain that can afford to pay its CEO megabucks ought to be able to be a little more generous; and (2) yes, it is a problem for indies, too. I don't know how to address it, but potential contagion is a serious concern.