Restaurant Workers

It's an equation that seems simple but still escapes many restaurateurs: Treat your employees well, and your business will be better for it. Offering restaurant workers good pay, benefits and career mobility usually translates into high short-term costs -- a burden that causes many low-margin eateries to underpay and overwork their employees. But generous management policies also help dining establishments save big in the long run, according to new research from Cornell University and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.

Business and labor leaders have hammered out the outline of a compromise on one of the hardest issues in reforming the nation's immigration system -- how to handle future needs for foreign workers in the U.S. Although both sides say key details remain to be negotiated, the deal clears away a significant roadblock to further action in Congress. The bipartisan group of eight senators, which has been crafting an immigration bill, plan to meet next week to discuss the issue. The senators have been waiting to see the results of the talks between the business and labor groups.

A restaurant workers' group and a Los Angeles community clinic have launched a unique cooperative to provide health coverage to a group of people excluded from federal healthcare reform — illegal immigrants. The pilot program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, offers preventive and primary care to low-wage, uninsured workers in the restaurant industry. Legal immigrants and other restaurant workers who don't meet the criteria or cannot afford coverage under the healthcare law are also eligible.

A snowstorm that blanketed Kansas City, Mo., Thursday slowed the investigation into a deadly natural gas explosion, as well as efforts to identify the person who died in the blast, officials said. The Kansas City Fire Department, which finished its on-site investigation Wednesday afternoon, planned to release a report next week on what caused the fatal blast Tuesday that injured several people and destroyed JJ's restaurant , department spokesman James Garrett told the Los Angeles Times.

A Chicago restaurant worker recalls a time he was sick but felt he had to work or else be fired: "It was an incredibly busy weekend," he said, "at one point, one of my fellow workers sat me down because I was about to faint. The smell of grease and a long shift had taken their toll. I spent the next five days vomiting, expectorating phlegm and drinking a lot of orange juice. I had to force my co-workers to cover for me and work double shifts. They didn't want to see me fired, and I didn't want to lose my job. Later that week, two of my co-workers caught my virus as well as quite a few customers.

For now, Long Beach restaurants will not be required to post health inspection grades in their front windows showing how they ranked after their kitchens were examined. Instead, the city's health department is leaning toward setting up mandatory food handling classes for all restaurant kitchen workers rather than issue grades that range from A for good to C for bad.

After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Raul Saldivar, a chef at Weber's Place in Reseda, volunteered to cook meals for hundreds of quake victims at Reseda Park. On Sunday, Saldivar and five other San Fernando Valley restaurant employees will be among 29 to receive Hispanic Employees of Restaurants Outstanding Service (HEROS) awards for their work.

The National Restaurant Assn. and insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. are teaming up in a bid to make coverage more accessible to millions of restaurant workers without health benefits — three years ahead of when the healthcare overhaul would require everyone to have insurance. The initiative, though limited at the outset, marks one of the largest private-sector efforts to expand health insurance coverage. And its architects said it could ultimately help cover the 4 million to 6 million restaurant employees without health benefits, or about 10% of the nation's current population of uninsured.

Workers at a 23-year-old restaurant that is scheduled to close are negotiating with the L.A. Omni Hotel to require any new restaurant opening in the building to rehire them. The workers demonstrated last week outside the Minami Restaurant, 930 Wilshire Blvd., demanding that their jobs be saved. Many of the 14 employees, mostly waitresses, cooks and busboys, have worked at the Japanese restaurant from six to 20 years.

Orange County restaurant, bar and nightclub employees have a new magazine devoted to their workplace. The first issue of Last Call featured such articles as "Things People Do to Their Servers That You Won't Believe," "Are You Being Stalked by Your Co-Worker?" and "No Tip! What's Up With That?" The monthly publication, which made its debut last month, was distributed free to about 200 bars, restaurants and nightclubs along the coast from San Clemente to Long Beach.

Grocery store chain Albertsons, a division of SuperValu Inc., is laying off up to 2,500 workers at its supermarkets in Southern California and Nevada in an effort to slash costs amid slumping sales. The layoffs will begin June 17 and affect a "small number" of employees at every Albertsons store in the two states, said company spokeswoman Lilia Rodriguez. The chain operates 213 supermarkets in California and 34 in Nevada. Rodriguez declined to comment on the numbers of lost jobs in Los Angeles, but said the majority of payroll reductions will affect California.

The roughly 20 million workers involved up and down the American food chain make up a sixth of the country's entire workforce -- a fifth if you exclude public employees. But they're not treated especially well, according to a new report. The Food Chain Workers Alliance interviewed some 700 workers and employers in food production, processing, distribution, retail and service sectors for its study. That includes employees at farms, slaughterhouses, warehouses, grocery stores, restaurants and more.

A restaurant workers' group and a Los Angeles community clinic have launched a unique cooperative to provide health coverage to a group of people excluded from federal healthcare reform — illegal immigrants. The pilot program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, offers preventive and primary care to low-wage, uninsured workers in the restaurant industry. Legal immigrants and other restaurant workers who don't meet the criteria or cannot afford coverage under the healthcare law are also eligible.

If you are looking for work, your best odds of landing a job may be in the restaurant industry. In the 12 months ending in March, employment in eating and drinking establishments grew by 3.2%, more than double the 1.5% growth in total U.S. employment for that same period, according to a monthly report from the National Restaurant Assn. Eating and drinking places added 103,100 jobs in the first three months of the year, following a gain of 101,400 jobs in the last three months of 2011, according to the report.

Amid continuing confusion over the cause of death of a Malibu restaurant worker, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Thursday that it was looking into the incident to determine if there was a threat to public safety. Carlos Ivan Rodas, 32, was found dead Sunday night in a pool of blood in front of Guido's restaurant on Cross Creek Road; he had been sent to dispose of trash. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department initially reported that Rodas had been shot or beaten.

Offering restaurant workers good pay, benefits and career mobility might boost short-term costs for owners, but generous management policies help dining establishments save big in the long run, according to new research. The restaurant industry is a notoriously difficult place to work. Wages tend to be lower than those of any other occupation. Nine of 10 people on staff don't get sick days, paid vacation or health insurance. Advancing up the ladder tends to be a rare occurrence. The tough conditions are evident in worker productivity and retention, according to the research from Cornell University and Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a controversial proposal to have all restaurant waitresses, busboys and cooks throughout the city tested for the AIDS virus every six months. During a highly emotional 90-minute debate, some council members castigated Councilman Nate Holden for writing the motion. Then the council voted 11 to 1 against the proposal, with only Holden supporting it.

Employees who worked overtime to serve the crowds at Little Tokyo's Daikokuya ramen restaurant — which attracts long lines of young, late-night diners — weren't properly paid for their extra hours, according to a government agency. Los Angeles-based Bishamon Group Restaurants, which owns Daikokuya, has agreed to pay $145,000 in back wages to 66 employees, the U.S. Labor Department said. The agency's wage and hour division found violations not only at the Little Tokyo location but also at six of the company's other restaurants in Monterey Park, Covina, Arcadia, Costa Mesa and downtown Los Angeles.