Tens of thousands of people work at over 700 Red Lobster restaurants, serving jumbo fried shrimp, crab legs, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits. But, as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, few Red Lobster workers have access to paid sick leave. As a result, most Red Lobster workers who get sick are forced to show up to work, according to interviews with Red Lobster employees and previously unreleased survey data.
As a retired food service manager, also having worked for Darden Restaurants, I can attest to this environment of workers coming in sick. I would try to cover their shift for them, if they called, but if they showed up sick, I would send them home. Because of low wages, losing even one shift can put a worker behind in their bills. This is an industry wide, pre-pandemic issue with service workers. Raising the minimum wage is a good start. It's no wonder these people haven't returned to the industry if they got another job during the pandemic.
“Consistent with our industry” is exactly why I’ve only stepped into ONE restaurant since the pandemic started. That’s 2+ years without dining at a restaurant. I will not support an industry that does not support its employees and I will not consume food in a space that does not ensure a healthy environment.
“Consistent with our industry” is right- the entire food service industry is awful regarding employee benefits. Instead of doing the right thing, they hide behind “well this is how it is.” Yet they don’t understand the Great Resignation from the service industry.
Calling out sick means getting written up or being required to bring a docs note to prove illness. This means employees without health insurance must incur hundreds in debt for a doc visit to keep a job that pays less than living wages.
Many working poor people don’t go doctors until they are severely ill because it’s too expensive. Not being well enough to work but not sick enough to take on doctor visits debt is the proverbial caught between a rock & a hard place.
This is another outrageous example of why not have health care for all makes us all worse off. Not only do these workers receive low pay, not getting paid during illness can mean cutting them short on rent, groceries etc. Exposure is the best way to get people to understand this!
However, during a pandemic it is a crisis that will be paid for in many more expensive ways to the tax payers. Higher insurance rates as more and more people become sick, more people taking time off work because they catch an illness FROM their workplace! People lose their jobs, then require financial assistance from the government, not from these profitable companies with multi-millionaire CEOs. Society itself pays a very high price…it’s cheaper and more sensible to provide health care at the government level.
Obviously, being forced to “work sick” is particularly troubling for the food service industry, because of the high risk of infecting customers. But the problem isn’t unique to the food service industry. Too many employers (major corporations, banks, law firms - NO industry is unaffected) stopped offering separate vacation and sick leave benefits. Instead, they offer “paid time off” - a bucket of time that employees can use for any reason. So employees “work sick” to save their PTO hours for the things they used to do during vacation hours (not just travel, but all the little things that people experience just by living in our society, such as dentist appointments, graduations, weddings, and moving to a new home). The switch to PTO, combined with the trend to switch to “open” office configurations of huge rooms filled with desks that are barely separated from each other, gives new meaning to the term “corporate culture” - a giant Petrie dish in which employees transmit diseases among the population, and then bear the cost individually because their employers’ PTO policies allow employers to pretend they offer paid sick leave. These trends are one reason why so many employers’ operations remain fully remote, despite the availability of vaccines.
This is a great report in that it points out conditions that recall the pre Progressive labor conditions that led to reform in the opening decades of the twentieth century. May it be so again!
Red Lobster was implicated years ago in decompression sickness among the Miskito Indians in Honduras. Here is one of several articles that talk about Red Lobster’s involvement with abuse of Miskito Indians: http://www.flagrancy.net/salvage/redlobster.html
The Miskito Indians used to breath-hold dive for lobster but were provided SCUBA to dive deeper. Though someone or some company may have provided equipment, the Indians did not receive proper training for doing this. Decompression sickness leads to bone necrosis, paralysis, and death. Scientific papers were published about this problem. Here’s one: https://www.lummi-nsn.gov/userfiles/3_Dunford%20et%20al.%202002%20Diving%20and%20DCS%20in%20Mikskito%20Indian%20underwater%20harvesters.pdf . Note there is no mention of companies in this paper. However, we should be disturbed by the blatant abuse of people for lobster.
No such thing in the food industry as too sick to work. My youngest had Covid last Jan. Ended up off more than 10 days no pay. After vaccination in Summer, she has Covid again. Same old song and dance except the CDC has shortened both quarentine and time off.
Still no paid time off in the small business food industry.
More sick people across the board --food and every other job are reporting to work. I quit eating out before Christmas. I know the cook at home,
Me, is not at work sick. I have to work at staying well for my own sake.
More proof that these conglomerates that buy these companies are not operating under the guise of improving the human condition but are only in it for [obscene] profits for their CEOs and investors.
We have laws against monopolies why aren’t these anti-trust laws being used more often?
Maybe PI’s best column ever. Capitalism at its rock bottom lowest, fed on American appetites for the dwindling supply of shellfish, and as another comment points out, on our insistence upon linking health care to paid employment. It’s clearly not working.
I worked for Darden for 13 years. Although I did have grievances. We had a clear “I’ll employee policy”. It stated they didn’t work with specific symptoms.
A few key points here. Get staffed and you won’t be pressed to have sick TM work.
I worked for 2 brands at Darden. If you were good at your job, you made pretty good money. As alway, you get out of it what you put in.
In my experience, “most” of the service staff only wants to work 25-30 hrs a week. Is it really practical to expect paid leave on a 25 hr a week position? I don’t think so. The great team members got treated well. Unfortunately there are many in the service Industry whom in my opinion have unrealistic expectations of life and the industry.
As a retired food service manager, also having worked for Darden Restaurants, I can attest to this environment of workers coming in sick. I would try to cover their shift for them, if they called, but if they showed up sick, I would send them home. Because of low wages, losing even one shift can put a worker behind in their bills. This is an industry wide, pre-pandemic issue with service workers. Raising the minimum wage is a good start. It's no wonder these people haven't returned to the industry if they got another job during the pandemic.
“Consistent with our industry” is exactly why I’ve only stepped into ONE restaurant since the pandemic started. That’s 2+ years without dining at a restaurant. I will not support an industry that does not support its employees and I will not consume food in a space that does not ensure a healthy environment.
“Consistent with our industry” is right- the entire food service industry is awful regarding employee benefits. Instead of doing the right thing, they hide behind “well this is how it is.” Yet they don’t understand the Great Resignation from the service industry.
Calling out sick means getting written up or being required to bring a docs note to prove illness. This means employees without health insurance must incur hundreds in debt for a doc visit to keep a job that pays less than living wages.
Many working poor people don’t go doctors until they are severely ill because it’s too expensive. Not being well enough to work but not sick enough to take on doctor visits debt is the proverbial caught between a rock & a hard place.
:(
Do better, Red Lobster.
This is another outrageous example of why not have health care for all makes us all worse off. Not only do these workers receive low pay, not getting paid during illness can mean cutting them short on rent, groceries etc. Exposure is the best way to get people to understand this!
However, during a pandemic it is a crisis that will be paid for in many more expensive ways to the tax payers. Higher insurance rates as more and more people become sick, more people taking time off work because they catch an illness FROM their workplace! People lose their jobs, then require financial assistance from the government, not from these profitable companies with multi-millionaire CEOs. Society itself pays a very high price…it’s cheaper and more sensible to provide health care at the government level.
Obviously, being forced to “work sick” is particularly troubling for the food service industry, because of the high risk of infecting customers. But the problem isn’t unique to the food service industry. Too many employers (major corporations, banks, law firms - NO industry is unaffected) stopped offering separate vacation and sick leave benefits. Instead, they offer “paid time off” - a bucket of time that employees can use for any reason. So employees “work sick” to save their PTO hours for the things they used to do during vacation hours (not just travel, but all the little things that people experience just by living in our society, such as dentist appointments, graduations, weddings, and moving to a new home). The switch to PTO, combined with the trend to switch to “open” office configurations of huge rooms filled with desks that are barely separated from each other, gives new meaning to the term “corporate culture” - a giant Petrie dish in which employees transmit diseases among the population, and then bear the cost individually because their employers’ PTO policies allow employers to pretend they offer paid sick leave. These trends are one reason why so many employers’ operations remain fully remote, despite the availability of vaccines.
This is a great report in that it points out conditions that recall the pre Progressive labor conditions that led to reform in the opening decades of the twentieth century. May it be so again!
Red Lobster was implicated years ago in decompression sickness among the Miskito Indians in Honduras. Here is one of several articles that talk about Red Lobster’s involvement with abuse of Miskito Indians: http://www.flagrancy.net/salvage/redlobster.html
The Miskito Indians used to breath-hold dive for lobster but were provided SCUBA to dive deeper. Though someone or some company may have provided equipment, the Indians did not receive proper training for doing this. Decompression sickness leads to bone necrosis, paralysis, and death. Scientific papers were published about this problem. Here’s one: https://www.lummi-nsn.gov/userfiles/3_Dunford%20et%20al.%202002%20Diving%20and%20DCS%20in%20Mikskito%20Indian%20underwater%20harvesters.pdf . Note there is no mention of companies in this paper. However, we should be disturbed by the blatant abuse of people for lobster.
No such thing in the food industry as too sick to work. My youngest had Covid last Jan. Ended up off more than 10 days no pay. After vaccination in Summer, she has Covid again. Same old song and dance except the CDC has shortened both quarentine and time off.
Still no paid time off in the small business food industry.
More sick people across the board --food and every other job are reporting to work. I quit eating out before Christmas. I know the cook at home,
Me, is not at work sick. I have to work at staying well for my own sake.
Great reporting!
Continue the good work, Popular Info.
$3.50 an hour + tips. For front line workers! Fkg PATHETIC. I get paid more for volunteering as an election worker
More proof that these conglomerates that buy these companies are not operating under the guise of improving the human condition but are only in it for [obscene] profits for their CEOs and investors.
We have laws against monopolies why aren’t these anti-trust laws being used more often?
Maybe PI’s best column ever. Capitalism at its rock bottom lowest, fed on American appetites for the dwindling supply of shellfish, and as another comment points out, on our insistence upon linking health care to paid employment. It’s clearly not working.
I worked for Darden for 13 years. Although I did have grievances. We had a clear “I’ll employee policy”. It stated they didn’t work with specific symptoms.
A few key points here. Get staffed and you won’t be pressed to have sick TM work.
I worked for 2 brands at Darden. If you were good at your job, you made pretty good money. As alway, you get out of it what you put in.
In my experience, “most” of the service staff only wants to work 25-30 hrs a week. Is it really practical to expect paid leave on a 25 hr a week position? I don’t think so. The great team members got treated well. Unfortunately there are many in the service Industry whom in my opinion have unrealistic expectations of life and the industry.
Looks like Red Lobster has a pattern of not caring for those who work for them, don’t they?