If you list yourself among the many people across Florida who make a living working in a restaurant or food service role, you face specific on-the-job hazards that commonly lead to injury within your industry. The nature of your field places you at risk for repetitive motion-related injuries, heavy lifting-related injuries and numerous others. Additionally, many of the injury risks you face as a restaurant or food service worker are consistent industry-wide, meaning you face many of the same environmental hazards, regardless of whether you work in fine dining or a fast food establishment.
Per Restaurant Programs of America, injuries related to lifting are common among restaurant, food service and hospitality workers, and they can stem from carrying trays, lifting heavy boxes and transporting tables and chairs, among other causes. Your food service work environment also potentially exposes you to hazardous chemicals, and this may prove particularly true if cleaning using certain harmful substances is a regular part of your job.
Burns, too, are common among food service workers, and they can affect back-of-house employees, who cook using hot surfaces and grease, and front-of-house employees, who can spill trays or hot drinks or accidentally touch hot plates or cooktops. Slip-and-fall injuries, which can result from wet floors, employee collisions or loose carpeting, among related causes, are also common among restaurant workers. As a food service employee, you also face the risk of developing injuries related to repetitive motions, which can result from carrying trays, repeatedly performing similar food prep tasks or favoring one side of your body over the other.
While this information about food service and restaurant worker injuries is informative in nature, it is not a replacement for legal advice.