CHICAGO -- The National Restaurant Association is launching a training program to combat sexual harassment in the foodservice industry, starting with free webinars this summer, CEO Dawn Sweeney said at the group’s annual convention in Chicago.
The program will be modeled after the association’s ServSafe food-safety training program, which is now virtually an industry standard. Eight million people have now been certified through the ServSafe program, Sweeney said.
Sexual harassment allegations have been leveled recently against several restaurant celebrities, such as John Besh, Mario Batali, Todd English, The Spotted Pig’s Ken Friedman, The Great American Baking Show’s Johnny Iuzzini and Top Chef’s Mike Isabella. These charges drove the association to look at ways to address the issue.
“We condemn sexual harassment. Period,” Sweeney said. “Tipped, hourly and salary workers all deserve the same level of respect and support. It does not matter if the harasser is a customer, a colleague or a manager; it will not be tolerated. Our industry, like so many others, is confronting this challenge as our collective awareness has increased about this problem in society. ServSafe Workplace is designed to help prevent and respond to this behavior in the workplace.”
The industry advocacy group also announced that it would team up with the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance to develop a subconscious bias training. The program will seek to prevent the kind of discrimination faced by two African-American men who were accused of trespassing in a Starbucks and arrested. The coffeehouse chain recently closed its cafes for an afternoon to host anti-bias training sessions with the help of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
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