Restaurant Opportunities Center of LA released a report called "Behind the Kitchen Door". Some of the findings:
-89.8% of employers do not provide health insurance
-89.4% of employees do not get paid sick days
-58.3% of employees have worked when sick
-80.2% of employees do not receive regular raises
-75.4% of employees have never received a promotion
-44.1% of employees have experienced overtime wage violations (ex: worked more than 8 hours in a day without being paid time-and-a-half)
-29.3% of employees have done something that put their own safety at risk
-27.8% of employees have done something due to time pressure that might have harmed the health and safety of customers
-42.9% of employees were burned while on the job
-42.4% of employees were cut while on the job
In short, the vast majority of the bussers, runners, dishwashers, line cooks and waiters who are the backbone of the restaurant industry are getting a raw deal.
A similar report on Washington DC also found racial inequalities, employee mistreatment, low wages, and risks to worker safety and public health. The findings of the report include widespread wage theft (workers being pressured to clock out hours before being allowed to leave work to avoid overtime payments) and tip theft, verbal abuse by managers, and gender and racial disparities in hiring and promotions. Where very few number of food service workers who have paid sick days from their jobs ,almost 60% of the 562 surveyed restaurant workers in DC said they had come in to work and handled food served to customers while they were sick and potentially contagious
1 comment:
From the anti-union law firm Seyfarth Shaw
All a restaurant needs is one disgruntled employee with internet access or a friend in a union and the Wobblies, UNITE HERE or any one of a number of other unions will be knocking at its front door. Given that these tough economic times have limited upward mobility in the job market, many fast-food employees have worked in the industry for longer than they had anticipated. Consequently, they are primed to take their frustration out on their employers instead of the economy.
Restaurants, just like any other employers, must assume its employees are always subject to union organizing, and take steps to prevent the commission of unfair labor practices by human resources personnel, supervisors or managers who, without proper training, will not know how to respond when confronted with this situation. In that regard, it is crucially important that handbooks and other employment policies be fully compliant with the National Labor Relations Act. Many of the allegations the Wobblies have raised that have resulted in settlement agreements involve such issues as bulletin board usage, employees discussing their pay and benefits, off-duty employee access issues, union buttons, etc. These are all items UNITE HERE has been raising within the hotel industry for years. Violations over such issues can lead to overturned elections, bad press, and give the union the ability to claim victories that could sway employees in an organizing campaign. Supervisors and other management personnel should be trained in understanding what rights employees and unions have under the National Labor Relations Act, and what employers can lawfully do and not do in the event of organizing. Last, and certainly not least, employers, and, importantly, the supervisors who represent them, must practice positive employee relations at all times. Pay and benefits should be as competitive as practical, working conditions safe, harassment policies in place and strictly enforced, and employee views and opinions respected.
While the odds of union organizing in the restaurant industry and, in particular, the fast-food sector may currently be low, the best way of keeping them low and keeping the Wobblies and other unions at bay is to take steps now to insure employees have no reason or desire to organize.
http://libcom.org/forums/news/union-busters-analysis-iww-16022011
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