Cooking up occupational injustice: poor wages and working conditions among San Francisco's Chinatown restaurant workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baker R ; Bhatia R ; Chang C ; Gaydos ME ; Krause N ; Lee PT ; Liu SS ; Minkler M ; Salvatore AL
• Description:
  The restaurant industry is a major employer of immigrant workers in the United States. In many areas, such as the Chinatown District of San Francisco, food establishments are the largest single employer of Chinese immigrants. Little is known, however, about the working conditions facing ethnic Chinese restaurant workers. In this presentation we will share results from an ecological, Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) study of restaurant working conditions and worker health in San Francisco's Chinatown. We will describe the study's community-university-health department partnership and restaurant workers' involvement in the study development and interpretation of results and present findings from the study's survey of Chinatown restaurant workers (n=433). Survey results indicate that Chinatown restaurant workers routinely experience multiple issues of occupational injustice including low wages, "slow pay, no pay", tip theft, and lack of breaks, paid sick time, training, and other benefits mandated by federal and city policy. Furthermore, findings indicate that many Chinatown restaurant workers conduct their work in potentially harmful physical and psychosocial environments. Work place hazards such as intense heat and slippery floors and related occupational injuries were commonly reported by study participants. Stressful working conditions, unfair treatment by employers, and incidents of workplace violence were also frequently reported. The partnership is currently developing strategies to address the occupational injustices documented by this research. Advocacy, policy change, and other actions carried out or being discussed by the partnership, including restaurant workers, to promote greater justice for restaurant workers in Chinatown will be described. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidental Falls Accidents Demography Environmental Exposure Environmental Pollution Food Handling Food Industry Hazardous Substances Hot Temperature Men Mental Health Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Staff Development Violence Women Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Demographic-characteristics Environmental-hazards Exposure-levels Fall-protection Food-handlers Food-services Hazards Health-hazards Heat-exposure Humans Injuries Physiological-effects Physiology Psychological-effects Psychology Risk-factors Sociological-factors Stress Training Violence-prevention Work-environment Workers

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• Publisher:
  American Public Health Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044884
• Citation:
  APHA 138th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 6-10, 2010, Denver, Colorado. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, 2010 Nov; :230022
• Contact Point Address:
  Alicia Salvatore, Stanford University, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Medical School Office Building, 251 Campus Drive, MC5411, Stanford, CA 94305
• Email:
  alicia.salvatore@gmail.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Performing Organization:
  University of California Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  APHA 138th Annual Meeting and Exposition, November 6-10, 2010, Denver, Colorado
• End Date:
  20100831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6690d2881a919c05eb102d6ca8f628d597bdbea43165c9174d050e42ff5ee67629e2854398b2d4befbf29e7e6df1126d43280f5eb78a7eab27b49b41b03ce8f8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200485/cdc_200485_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 44.50 KB ]