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Article

17 Apr 2020

Author:
Marjorie McAfee, Cho Park, Kristofer Rios, John Kapetaneas & Anthony Rivas, ABC News

'Underlying crisis': Foodservice workers protest lack of COVID-19 safety measures, hazard pay

Adriana Alvarez has worked at a McDonald’s outside of Chicago for nearly 10 years... “We deserve hazard pay. We deserve paid sick leave," Alvarez said. "We’re risking going to work... and we’re still getting paid the same poverty wages"...Alvarez is part of the Fight for $15 movement, an effort that started out advocating to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

... [A]n employee from [a] McDonald’s [in California]... filed a complaint with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, asking in part that "the company instruct all the workers who were exposed, either directly or indirectly [to the sick employee] … to self-quarantine, with full pay for the time of self-quarantine.”... McDonald’s said that when it was notified of the employee's diagnosis, it “immediately reached out to four other crew members that had come into close contact with the employee, instructing them to self-quarantine for 14 days,” and that the restaurant was also “closed overnight for routine deep cleaning."... 

“Since February, we have changed nearly 50 processes in McDonald’s U.S. restaurants, such as adding employee wellness and temperature checks,” McDonald’s continued, adding that it is “confident McDonald’s employees impacted by the virus are receiving paid sick leave to tend to their critical health needs” and that ​their "number one priority is the health and well-being of our people, who are the heart and soul of McDonald's."

Part of the following timelines

USA: McDonald's workers strike across the country demanding paid sick leave, hazard pay & safer working conditions; incl. company comments

Ongoing protests despite COVID-19 lockdowns