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Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0045, subpart A requires the PIC to exclude ill employees. Excluded
employees may not work in the food establishment.
If an employee experiences symptoms – such as vomiting
and/or diarrhea – at home, they need to stay home and report their symptoms to
the PIC. If an employee has illness onset during their shift, they need to
report their symptoms to the PIC, and then go home.
Another reason to exclude an employee is if they have been
diagnosed with certain illnesses. Minnesota food code lists four illnesses requiring
exclusion:
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-
E. coli
O157:H7
- Salmonella
- Shigella
- Hepatitis A
FDA Food Code extends this requirement to
norovirus diagnosis. Proposed language for Minnesota food code rule revision also includes the requirement to exclude
employees diagnosed with norovirus.
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Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0045, subparts B and C
require the PIC to restrict the duties of ill employees. Restriction means an
employee may temporarily be given work assignments that do not put customers at
risk of getting sick.
A restricted employee may not work with:
- Exposed food
- Clean equipment
- Clean utensils
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MDH epidemiologists, inspectors and food establishment
management work together to determine if restrictions are appropriate. However,
because there are few work assignments in a food establishment that do not put
customers at risk, restrictions are uncommon.
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Minnesota Rules, part 4626.0050 gives MDH (and
the licensing authority, if different) the authority to prohibit ill employees
from putting customers at risk of getting sick during a foodborne illness
investigation. Employees may not return to work for at least 24 hours after
symptoms have gone (72 hours during an outbreak).
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According to CDC, 20 percent of food
workers say they worked at least one shift with vomiting or diarrhea in the
past year. Several factors influenced this behavior:
- Restaurant staffing.
- Concern about negative consequences of missing
work.
- Management policies and practices.
During the routine inspection, inspectors can ask an
employee, "What do you do if you are sick and need to miss your shift?" A discussion with the PIC might include a
prompt such as, “Tell me about what happens when an employee misses a shift
because of illness.”
Here are some resources inspectors can provide to help the
PIC and employees do the right thing when it comes to vomiting and diarrhea:
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Coming soon...Tip of the Quarter, Part 3: Recording Employee Illness and Customer Complaints.
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