ServSafe Manager · Hygiene and Health · 7 min read
Exclusion, Restriction and Employee Health Policy
- Identify the Person in Charge's responsibilities for implementing an employee health policy, training staff, and obtaining required health information.
- Differentiate between exclusion and restriction, applying correct management actions based on employee symptoms, pathogen diagnoses, and high-risk facility settings.
- Explain the specific criteria for notifying regulatory authorities, safely reinstating staff, managing bodily fluid cleanups, and maintaining active managerial control.
Manager Responsibilities and Employee Health Reporting
As a Person in Charge (PIC), protecting public health begins with an effective employee health policy. The PIC is responsible for ensuring that all food employees and conditional employees are fully informed of their duty to report health conditions. Active managerial control means the manager does not wait for an outbreak to occur. Instead, the PIC sets clear procedures and trains the entire team so everyone understands which symptoms, medical diagnoses, and specified exposures must be reported.
Before a conditional employee begins work as a food employee, the PIC must explain these reporting requirements, obtain any required health information, and determine whether an exclusion or restriction applies. To document this training and support active managerial control, managers should use signed employee health reporting agreements. While a signed agreement provides useful documentation, it is not required by the FDA Food Code. Because state and local jurisdictions may enforce older or newer editions of the Food Code, managers must consult local regulations for exact reporting mandates.
On a day-to-day basis, the PIC should routinely observe employees for signs of illness, ask about reportable conditions, and take immediate action on reports. The FDA Food Code does not prescribe a specific daily symptom-check procedure, leaving managers the flexibility to integrate visual monitoring into shift routines. Food employees must immediately report symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes) to the PIC. They must also report a sore throat accompanied by a fever, as well as any uncovered lesion containing pus, such as a boil or infected wound, located on the hands, wrists, exposed arms, or other body parts.
Reporting duties also extend to activities outside the establishment. Food employees must report specified outbreak-related exposures and household contacts within the Food Code's applicable time periods. Specifically, an employee must notify the PIC if they live with someone diagnosed with Norovirus, Hepatitis A virus, Shigella spp., Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), or Salmonella Typhi within the applicable exposure periods.
Common mistakes
- Assuming an employee can return immediately once vomiting or diarrhea stops, rather than applying the Food Code’s at-least-24-hours-asymptomatic criterion or its documented-noninfectious-cause provision when no reportable infection is diagnosed.
- Restricting an employee with a sore throat and fever in a hospital or nursing home, failing to recognize that highly susceptible population facilities require total exclusion.
- Allowing a worker with an infected hand or wrist wound to handle food with only a bandage, omitting the required single-use glove over the impermeable cover.
- Applying the general 24-hour symptom-free rule to diagnosed reportable pathogens instead of obtaining required regulatory authority approvals or pathogen-specific medical clearances.
Key points
- The PIC must train food employees and conditional employees on their duty to report specific symptoms, diagnoses, and household or outbreak exposures.
- Reportable symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, and uncovered infected wounds or boils.
- Exclusion bars a person from entering or working in the food establishment as an employee, while restriction allows duties that avoid exposed food and the other items specified by the Food Code, such as cashiering or stocking prepackaged items.
- Sore throat with fever requires restriction in general food establishments, but mandates complete exclusion in operations serving highly susceptible populations.
- The PIC must notify the regulatory authority whenever an employee is jaundiced or diagnosed with one of the six reportable pathogens.
- Reinstating excluded or restricted workers requires meeting the criteria for the particular condition, including being asymptomatic for at least 24 hours after vomiting or diarrhea without a diagnosed reportable infection, or obtaining medical documentation or regulatory approval when the applicable pathogen-specific rule requires it.
- Active managerial control involves reassigning duties during exclusions, keeping confidential records, conducting corrective training, and maintaining written procedures for vomit and fecal cleanups.
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