Kitchen hand vomited the night before a shift
At 10:00pm on a Thursday, a 19-year-old kitchen hand texts the duty manager: they vomited twice after dinner, feel fine now, and want to start at 7:00am because they need the money. The café runs a 90-seat brunch with three staff; the kitchen hand's jobs are plating, toast, garnishes, refilling water and washing dishes. They have not seen a doctor. Their flatmate had gastro earlier in the week, and another staff member worked two shifts last week with diarrhoea because 'it was only mild'. The roster has no cover, and the manager knows that cancelling will leave two staff struggling with a booked function at 10:00am. The kitchen hand arrives at 6:50am in uniform, saying the vomiting must have been something they ate and that they feel '100 percent'.
1. Can the kitchen hand work the 7:00am shift? Explain your decision and what you say to them.
Read the worked answer
No - they are excluded from food handling until 48 hours after their last symptom.
- MPI guidance for food handlers is that anyone with vomiting or diarrhoea must be excluded from food handling until 48 hours after symptoms stop. Last symptoms were 10:00pm Thursday, so the earliest return is 10:00pm Saturday. A 7:00am Friday start is well inside the exclusion period.
- Feeling fine does not clear them. Norovirus is shed in vomit and stool and can still be shed after symptoms resolve, and the infectious dose is tiny.
- A flatmate with gastro adds risk; household spread is common.
- 'It must have been something I ate' is not a diagnosis. Vomiting twice is enough to apply the rule; no doctor's note or confirmed cause is needed.
- As a food handler they have a duty to tell their supervisor they are ill, and the business has a duty to keep them away from food and food contact surfaces.
What to say, calmly and privately: 'Thanks for telling me - that was the right thing to do. Because you vomited, you cannot handle food or dishes until 48 hours after your last symptom. That means Saturday evening at the earliest.' Record the time of the call, symptoms, advice given and who was told.
2. They arrive at 6:50am in uniform insisting they are fine. What do you do, and is there any task they could safely do?
Read the worked answer
Do not let them start. Arriving in uniform and saying '100 percent' does not change the 48-hour clock.
- Dishwashing is not a safe alternative: it involves food contact surfaces, utensils, shared sinks and cloths.
- For a vomiting illness that could be norovirus, the safest answer is that there is no task on site for them. If a manager insists on keeping them on the premises, they must not touch food, packaging, crockery, cutlery or food surfaces, and must wash hands frequently - but sending them home removes the risk entirely.
- Cover the shift: call the on-call list, have the manager work the function, simplify the menu (for example stop toasted items) or reduce seating.
- Tell them when they can return (48 hours after the last symptom) and put it in writing on the roster.
- Do not deduct pay or threaten them; punishing honesty drives illness reporting underground.
- If someone becomes unwell on site (for example vomiting in the kitchen), exclude them immediately, clean and sanitise the area with a chlorine-based sanitiser, discard any exposed food, and record it.
3. What changes at the café so this situation is handled better next time?
Read the worked answer
Build a system that makes the right behaviour easy.
- Write an illness-reporting rule: who to call, by when, and the 48-hour exclusion. Post it in the staff area and cover it at induction.
- Make calling in sick practical: an on-call list, cross-trained staff, and a manager who will cover.
- Hold a short return-to-work conversation and record it.
- Review the other staff member who worked with diarrhoea - that was a breach. Check whether they handled food on those shifts; if so, assess whether any food should be discarded, and clean and sanitise thoroughly. Brief the whole team that mild symptoms still count.
- Keep training records and a signed acknowledgment for each staff member.
- Managers should model the rule: nobody works with gastro, including the owner.