Fast food workers ‘scared’
Halaena McKeague clocked off just moments ago, and the words are coming in torrents.
Her first shift at Gisborne’s Burger King since New Zealand moved to level three and the nation went wild for takeaways was just four hours long, but it passed in a blur.
As dozens of cars rolled along the drivethrough line and staff jostled for space inside the kitchen, there was no time for anything but stripping off her disposable gloves and pulling on a fresh pair between customers.
‘‘I went through a box and a half,’’ McKeague says. ‘‘I was hoping BK would go cashless like other fast food places but most people here [in Gisborne] want to pay cash, and we can’t turn them away.’’
The experience has left her deeply worried for both herself and, as the store’s union representative, her fellow workers. They’re like her family, she says, all she wants to do is keep them safe.
She does not know how that’s going to work. ‘‘I’ve got a staffer who has asthma, and one who is seven months pregnant, but she has to work.’’
And if the queues look bad, McKeague says, it’s ‘‘ten times worse’’ inside the kitchen. Staff are crossing paths dozens of times in a shift as they move from prep to cook to service areas.
‘‘Distancing is non-existent in fast food kitchens. I drew a map the other day because I know that kitchen like the back of my hand, and there’s just no way.’’
At Burger King head office in Auckland, head of marketing Andrea Spearman says the company has also ‘‘mapped’’ its restaurant kitchens and it is possible to ‘‘safely execute’’ physical distancing of one metre between staff.
‘‘The health and safety of our team members, guests and communities is our top priority and during Covid-19 level 3 we have strengthened our already rigorous procedures around food safety, cleanliness and hygiene,’’ she says.
At a Christchurch KFC, Jenna* doesn’t want her name used for fear of a company backlash, but says she and her fellow workers can’t keep their distance and deal with the constant stream of customers.
‘‘I was on shift last night and it was crazy. I was put on prep and the cooks have to come through my zone to put the chicken in the cookers, and I have to go through their zone to put it in the warmer.
‘‘If you are in the drive-through packing [orders], there are two people in that space and it’s tiny.’’
She says the store has guidelines for Covid-19, including hand-washing, but the volume of customers has seen service overtaking safety as the priority. Jenna says she had time to wash her hands on her break and when changing stations – a total of three times in a four-hour shift.
And in both cases, the ‘‘gold standard’’ safety check – monitoring of staff’s temperatures – is just not happening, both women told Stuff.
At KFC, the thermometer Jenna expected to see when she clocked on, and on her break, did not appear. A spokesman for KFC’s parent company Restaurant Brands says staff temperature checks are ‘‘not a requirement at level three’’ and masks are available but similarly, are not a compulsory requirement.
KFC is not accepting cash, the spokesman says, Eftpos machines are sanitised between transactions and staff ‘‘must’’ wash their hands every 30 minutes.
Supervisors are closely monitoring a onemetre social distancing policy as per government recommendations, he says.
On paper, the rules are clear; there’s a checklist for sanitising and cleaning, distancing and temperature checks, gloves and masks. In practice the illusion of safety has been blown away by the sheer demand for service and confusion reigns.
‘‘One manager told the staff they had to wear masks, and one said they didn’t.
‘‘They’ve promised something they just can’t deliver.’’