One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
Fast Food Workers Face High COVID Risk
A customer receives his food in a McDonald's drive-thru on July 28, 2021 in Houston, Texas.
(
Brandon Bell
/
Getty Images
)
Los Angeles County fast food workers face a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 than many other categories of employees, and they are often denied workplace protections. That's according to UCLA researchers who recently released the study, Fast-Food Frontline: COVID-19 and Working Conditions in Los Angeles.
Their findings indicate that fewer than half of the workers surveyed are notified by their employers when a colleague tests positive for COVID-19. On top of that, the majority of these workers do not get paid sick leave if they contract the virus.
"It's hard to think of another industry besides health care workers who have to interact so much with the public, and yet their employers are not helping them," says Tia Koonse, one of the study’s lead authors.
She hopes officials will make policy changes to protect fast food workers amid the current surge in coronavirus cases, attributed to the omicron variant.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
