Tag Archives: employee

’No boogers in my burgers’ Conn. workers want sick days for food safety

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Fresh off the firing of seven union workers protesting for sick days at Jimmy John’s in Minnesota, 25 people rallied outside a Connecticut McDonald’s last week in support paid sick days with slogans like, "No boogers in my burgers."

Holding signs with slogans including, "No coughing in our coffee," protesters called on the company to support paid sick days legislation for public health and low-wage workers.

The Trefz Corp., which owns 43 McDonald’s restaurants in Connecticut and New York, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is in favor of paid sick days and a bill that would require businesses with 50 or more employees to provide an hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked has been reported out of committee.

One recent study published by the Journal of Food Protection found that one in eight food service workers reported coming to work sick twice in the last year, with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.

Eat here and barf: seven Jimmy John’s union workers fired

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Jimmy John’s launched a new ad campaign earlier this month stressing speed instead of safety after making 130 or so people barf with salmonella-in-sprouts-on-sandwiches in two separate outbreaks.

Over the past two days, seven core members of the Jimmy John’s Workers Union were fired at five Minneapolis-area locations for distributing hundreds of posters claiming that eating at Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches puts customers at risk of food-borne illness.

The poster shows identical sandwiches, one labeled as being made by a healthy worker and one by a sick worker. The poster asks if customers can spot a difference between the two. “We hope your immune system is ready because you’re about to take the sandwich test,” it reads.

I would have gone with the sprout and ingredient angle, what with all the sick people, but having sick sandwich artists work is an excellent way to spread norovirus, salmonella and lots of other nasties.

According to The Minnesota Daily, the posters were in response to the union’s unmet demands for paid sick days, which “force” employees to come in sick, putting customers at risk, they said.’’

Union supporter David Boehnke, said, “We were fired for saying we want better working conditions for ourselves. We were standing up for ourselves.”

Boehnke said their activities were legally protected because the employees were organizing for higher wages. However Franchise Owner Mike Mulligan of MikLin Enterprises disagrees.

According to a statement from MikLin, the posters disparaged the company’s reputation and showed “extreme disloyalty and malicious intent to damage” the company.

If you want to preserve the company’s reputation, try not to make customers barf – it’s bad for business.

The workers currently have a four-point system, in which workers are deducted one point for missing work without finding a replacement and half a point for coming to work 10 minutes late.

At four points, the worker is fired.

Lab results confirm norovirus in Florida restaurant outbreak

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Over 100 people who ate at an unnamed restaurant north of Tampa a couple of weeks ago have been confirmed to have been part of a norovirus outbreak.

But now they’ve named the restaurant.

(What are public disclosure procedures? When does public health have a responsibility to go public with information about an outbreak, especially if it will prevent additional people from barfing?)

Hernando Today reports local health-types have confirmed norovirus in at least three of those 100 sickies, who dined at Kally K’s Restaurant between March 6-11.

Among the positive results was at least one of the employees of the restaurant.

Uh-oh.

The owner of Kally K’s is complying with Health Department recommendations that no employees who tested positive for this virus will be involved in food handling or preparation until follow up tests are negative. The restaurant continues to cooperate in this ongoing investigation.
 

Seattle Yacht Club closed because of norovirus; 150 sick

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Last May the Haaaaaaaaaarvard Faculty Club was shuttered after a norovirus outbreak sickened a few hundred guests and up to 40 per cent of the staff.

Yesterday the Seattle Yacht Club announced it was closing until March 15 after an outbreak of norovirus made about 150 guests and employees ill since March 1.

Club General Manager Steve Hall said the club voluntarily closed in order to sanitize its facilities.

Hall said the first sign of an outbreak was on March 1 and the club contacted Seattle & King County Public Health for guidance on how to manage the situation. The outbreak seemed to be under control until Saturday when several people who attended a function the previous night became ill.

The yacht club, which is located in the Portage Bay neighborhood and has 2,750 members, has hired two cleaning firms to sanitize the club and its food preparation and service facilities during its closure.

Brote de Shigella 
en una cafetería en Bélgica causado por un empleado

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Traducido por Gonzalo Erdozain
Resumen del folleto informativo mas reciente:
– 52 casos de shigelosis conectados a un trabajador en un periodo de 2 meses.
– Preparadores de alimentos pueden transmitir Shigella 
sin tener síntomas de enfermedad.
– Si esta enfermo, y sus síntomas incluyen nausea, vomito o diarrea, no prepare alimentos.
– Preparadores de alimentos deben lavarse las manos antes de preparar/cocinar alimentos, y luego de ir al baño.
Los folletos informativos son creados semanalmente y puestos en restaurantes, tiendas y granjas, y son usados para entrenar y educar a través del mundo. Si usted quiere proponer un tema o mandar fotos para los folletos, contacte a Ben Chapman a benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu.
Puede seguir las historias de los folletos informativos y barfblog en twitter
@benjaminchapman y @barfblog.
 

Food worker delivers Morocco strain of shigella; sickens 52 in a Belgian cafeteria

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On Nov. 13, 2009, a Belgian physician notified authorities about an apparent cluster of Shigella sonnei; ultimately, 52 cases were identified over two months, and most were linked to a canteen in a public institution building. Best guess is that a food handler who travelled to Morocco shortly before detection of the first laboratory-confirmed case, picked up shigella, and then transmitted it through food.

The details can be found in the current issue of Epidemiology and Infection, where researchers report on a matched case-control study to test an association between shigellosis and canteen-food consumption.

The three food handlers working permanently in the canteen responded to the questionnaire. Food handler A travelled to Turkey from 23 September to
4 October 2009. She started working on 7 October. She prepared sandwiches, washed dishes and served food. She fell ill on 20 October, and had been exposed to canteen food during the 4 days prior to disease onset. Food handler B travelled to Morocco from 23 September to 1 October. This person started working on 4 October and was involved in vegetable washing, preparation of hot meals, sandwiches, cold dishes involving vegetables and cleaning the canteen. He did not declare having fallen sick. Food handler C was also involved in all activities except in hot meal preparation. He had not travelled, been absent or fallen sick.

Of the 52 shigella cases found in 708 employees of a public institution in Flemish Brabant province, Belgium, between September and November 2009, seven cases were confirmed as S. sonnei. There was a common PFGE profile which resembled those from archived specimens from Morocco. Cases of
shigellosis were associated with canteen-food consumption.

Investigators worked with three hypotheses: (i) waterborne transmission through a contaminated water dispenser, (ii) person-to-person transmission or via surfaces (toilets), or (iii) foodborne transmission (through previously contaminated food or during the preparation process by a contaminated food handler).

Foodborne transmission through canteen food is supported by the results of the employee survey and by the matched case-control study. This led us to think that a food handler might have been the source of the outbreak. Food handler B returned from Morocco shortly before the appearance of the first confirmed cases. He did not report any symptoms and worked continuously since his return.

Foodborne transmission might have happened had he been an asymptomatic case. Healthy carriers can shed 102 Shigella c.f.u./g of feces during 1 month.
Thus, food handler B could have unintentionally acted as an intermittent source of food contamination during the period of faecal shedding. Conversely, food handler A, who had travelled to Turkey, could not be the source of the outbreak, since her onset of disease happened after the onset of symptoms of some confirmed cases.

The researchers recommend:
• washing hands with soap and water before eating and after defecation for employees and food handlers;
• preventing sick food handlers from working until full recovery or until negative fecal culture in the case of laboratory confirmation;
• maintaining surveillance of further possible cases of shigellosis through the institution’s prevention service; and,
• collecting information on the workplace when interviewing notifiable cases in order to detect infectious disease clusters early.

Shigellosis outbreak linked to canteen-food consumption in a public institution: a matched case-control study
01.feb.11
Epidemiology and Infection
I. Gutiérrez Garitano, M. Naranjo, A. Forier, R. Hendriks, K. De Schrijver, S. Bertrand, K. Dierick, E. Robesyn, and S. Quoilin
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8024291
Abstract
On 13 November 2009, the authorities of Flemish Brabant, Belgium, received an alert concerning a potential outbreak of Shigella sonnei at a public institution. A study was conducted to assess the extent, discover the source and to implement further measures. We performed a matched case-control study to test an association between shigellosis and canteen-food consumption. Water samples and food handlers’ faecal samples were tested. The reference laboratory characterized the retrospectively collected Shigella specimens. We found 52 cases distributed over space (25/35 departments) and time (2 months). We found a matched odds ratio of 3·84 (95% confidence interval 1·02–14·44) for canteen-food consumption. A food handler had travelled to Morocco shortly before detection of the first laboratory-confirmed case. Water samples and food handlers’ faecal samples tested negative for Shigella. Confirmed cases presented PFGE profiles, highly similar to archived isolates from Morocco. Foodborne transmission associated with the canteen was strongly suspected.
 

Up to 73 with Druxy’s diarrhea; don’t let sick employees serve food

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The Hamilton Spectator (that’s in Ontario, Canada) reports this morning that public health types received 40 calls Friday from people who were sick after eating food from the downtown Druxy’s Famous Deli Sandwiches earlier this week.

All of them ate food from the deli on Tuesday or Wednesday and showed a similar range of symptoms to the 33 people who became sick with gastrointestinal illness or stomach flu at a corporate event catered by Druxy’s Tuesday, said Dr. Chris Mackie, one of the city’s associate medical officers of health.

The symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, he said.

Public health temporarily closed the deli at Jackson Square Thursday afternoon after they suspected two ill employees serving at a corporate Christmas party contaminated the food. The department found Druxy’s did not have hot water for workers to wash their hands properly.

The downtown deli has catered three other events since Monday. Some of the new 40 patients had attended one of these functions, Mackie said.

Public health has collected some samples and should know what pathogen is involved likely by Monday, he said.

Always fresh, never frozen: hepatitis A in Wendy’s employee

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Toronto Public Health has identified a case of Hepatitis A in an employee at a Wendy’s restaurant located at 438 Nugget Avenue in Scarborough. Anyone who consumed food purchased at this restaurant between July 26 and August 6 may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus. The risk of getting the infection is very low.

Depends on how well the employee washed his or her hands and whether they were prepping salads or other fresh product. Don’t eat poop.
 

Blame the worker; Pennsylvania restaurant reopens after eight sickened by Salmonella; hostess dismissed

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Nunzi’s, a popular east Erie, PA, restaurant reopened Wednesday after it voluntarily closed for two weeks after a salmonella outbreak that sickened eight people.

Dennis Williams, a lawyer representing restaurant owners Michael and Betsy Cilladi, said a young hostess tested positive for Salmonella and she is no longer employed at the restaurant.

Williams further stated, "The obvious conclusion is that she somehow transmitted it to those eight people. For lack of a better word, Nunzi’s has been exonerated.”

I’m not comfortable hearing such certainty from anyone, especially a lawyer.

Blame the employee? Did the bosses ask employees to work, even if they were sick? Did they have high expectations for personal hygiene, especially during busy times? Did the owners create a workplace culture that fosters and encourages microbial food safety?

14 employees worked sick leading to norovirus outbreak; Harvard Faculty Club restaurant to remain closed during commencement

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Manhattan (Kansas) is all abustle this morning as parents stream in from around the state and elsewhere to watch their children graduate after four years of college. It’s Commencement Day.

Over at Harrr–vard University, not only do they have to deal with one of the most embarrassing collapses in hockey history as the Boston Bruins were eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers last night, the restaurant at the venerable Harvard Faculty Club, shuttered for weeks because of a norovirus outbreak that sickened more than 300 people, will remain closed through commencement, the height of the university’s social calendar.

On Friday, the Cambridge Health Department said an investigation found that before the club closed for the first time, 14 employees were working while they were sick and an undetermined number of employees were working less than 72 hours after they had become free of norovirus symptoms.

Louise Rice , director of public nursing for Cambridge, told the Boston Globe that state law requires that restaurant employees who become sick can not return to work until their symptoms have been gone for 72 hours.

I guess Harrr—vard has its own rules. And it must be hard to find good help for Harrr—vard, which may explain why they are advertizing for a Environmental Health Safety Officer to provide routine HACCP-based and food-code compliance inspections at university dining facilities (thank-you, barfblog reader).

Rice further said the city’s investigation found that approximately 308 people became sick at the club, and 33 of them were employees—which is about 40 percent of the club’s staff, adding,

“Having so many sick employees probably drove the contamination of the space.”

One of those sickened was 80-year-old Robert Cogan, a professor at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

After an ill-fated Easter brunch put him in the hospital for almost a month, he finally returned home last week. The gastrointestinal ailment led to a string of complications that put Cogan in intensive care for four days and extended stays at Massachusetts General Hospital and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Cogan said he’s “very disappointed” that before he ate his Easter brunch on April 4 no one at the club informed him that the restaurant had just reopened after a norovirus outbreak.

“If we’d known that, we certainly wouldn’t have gone,” said Cogan, who said he used to frequent the club for brunch.