The Restaurant Opportunities Center United has released a
national report concluding that 63% of food service professionals have cooked or served food while sick. 90% of us don't get insurance through our employers and 87% of us don't get paid sick days. The ROC admits "we suspect that the magnitude of health problems and unsafe practices may be higher than found in this study," which sounds right to me as I don't think I know a single cook that has not shown up to work sick at some point in their career.
The
report features a few anecdotes, a range of other fascinating statistics, and an interesting perspective on healthcare in our industry.