Help with staff canteen...
Discussion
Hi all,
Mods, I'm not really sure where to place this, it is kind of a legal question hence being here, but I don't know if anywhere else would be more appropriate?
My beautiful fiancee has run into a strange issue at work.
She works for a big company which has a staff canteen that is not optional! By this I mean that she has money deducted from her salary (no opt-out) to pay for a canteen that serves them their lunch.
She has a severe nut allergy that requires the carrying of an epipen to avoid anaphylaxis. The problem is that the canteen do not label any of their food with allergy information and the staff have been outright rude and unhelpful and are insisting that she has to ask the staff if any dishes contain nuts. This wouldn't be the biggest problem were it not for the fact that for the most part the canteen is self service where pre-prepared dishes are there for people to take so there wouldn't exactly be a member of staff nearby to offer advice. There is also the issue of cross contamination, as the food is all kept together and the chances of cross contamination is high (a vegetarian staff member wasn't pleased when she witnessed her food being prepared on the same chopping board that had just had cooked meat carved on it) as the staff seem to have a very laid back attitude towards keeping food separated in either prep or serving.
What is her recourse here? Do staff canteens of this type have any legal obligation towards allergy information (she isn't the only staff member with this problem) and taking steps to provide protection from cross contamination? Furthermore who is actually responsible? Her employer pay an outside contractor to provide catering services, is the canteen to be considered solely under their responsibility or does her employer have ultimate responsibility? It's all a bit confusing and more than a little infuriating!
Any advice?
Mods, I'm not really sure where to place this, it is kind of a legal question hence being here, but I don't know if anywhere else would be more appropriate?
My beautiful fiancee has run into a strange issue at work.
She works for a big company which has a staff canteen that is not optional! By this I mean that she has money deducted from her salary (no opt-out) to pay for a canteen that serves them their lunch.
She has a severe nut allergy that requires the carrying of an epipen to avoid anaphylaxis. The problem is that the canteen do not label any of their food with allergy information and the staff have been outright rude and unhelpful and are insisting that she has to ask the staff if any dishes contain nuts. This wouldn't be the biggest problem were it not for the fact that for the most part the canteen is self service where pre-prepared dishes are there for people to take so there wouldn't exactly be a member of staff nearby to offer advice. There is also the issue of cross contamination, as the food is all kept together and the chances of cross contamination is high (a vegetarian staff member wasn't pleased when she witnessed her food being prepared on the same chopping board that had just had cooked meat carved on it) as the staff seem to have a very laid back attitude towards keeping food separated in either prep or serving.
What is her recourse here? Do staff canteens of this type have any legal obligation towards allergy information (she isn't the only staff member with this problem) and taking steps to provide protection from cross contamination? Furthermore who is actually responsible? Her employer pay an outside contractor to provide catering services, is the canteen to be considered solely under their responsibility or does her employer have ultimate responsibility? It's all a bit confusing and more than a little infuriating!
Any advice?
Thanks everybody for all the advice.
She has now written to the company that provides the food and they have replied stating that essentially they are under no obligation to try to segregate foods either in prep or in serving so even if they told her that there were no nuts in the recipe they couldn't rule out any cross contamination. He pretty much said that the canteen wasn't suitable for someone with allergies. He also said that he would be happy to attend a meeting with HR to discuss further
So, to HR it is going! I will show her the bits of legislation that have been mentioned and the advice of you all which has been pretty much in line with what I have been saying. I am going to tell her to question why there is discrimination within her organisation, as if they refuse to alter her wages then everybody else is getting rewarded more for their work and she is excluded due to health concerns. It's clearly ludicrous and I would love to hear somebodies answer trying to justify that position.
As many people have said, what we want out of this is for them to remove the deduction and she will provide her own lunch. We're not after compensation or special treatment of allergy sufferers, just to end the current situation of her losing her lunch allowance to pay for this service. Before she was paid £100 a month extra to pay for lunches and it's the withdrawal of this that pays for the canteen, the fact that it was an allowance before is what makes us wonder if it doesn't qualify as a deduction.
Sorry that was probably a ramble, I'm tired and probably not making much sense!
She has now written to the company that provides the food and they have replied stating that essentially they are under no obligation to try to segregate foods either in prep or in serving so even if they told her that there were no nuts in the recipe they couldn't rule out any cross contamination. He pretty much said that the canteen wasn't suitable for someone with allergies. He also said that he would be happy to attend a meeting with HR to discuss further
So, to HR it is going! I will show her the bits of legislation that have been mentioned and the advice of you all which has been pretty much in line with what I have been saying. I am going to tell her to question why there is discrimination within her organisation, as if they refuse to alter her wages then everybody else is getting rewarded more for their work and she is excluded due to health concerns. It's clearly ludicrous and I would love to hear somebodies answer trying to justify that position.
As many people have said, what we want out of this is for them to remove the deduction and she will provide her own lunch. We're not after compensation or special treatment of allergy sufferers, just to end the current situation of her losing her lunch allowance to pay for this service. Before she was paid £100 a month extra to pay for lunches and it's the withdrawal of this that pays for the canteen, the fact that it was an allowance before is what makes us wonder if it doesn't qualify as a deduction.
Sorry that was probably a ramble, I'm tired and probably not making much sense!
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