Betty’s Kitchen Workers Face Safety Concerns

Since its opening, Betty’s Kitchen has experienced several safety incidents affecting its employees. While challenges have arisen during the adjustment period for the new dining hall, they are amplified by the workers’ apprehension following these recent events. 

On Sept. 21, the door directly left of the dish return detached from its hinges and fell on top of an employee. “She was just about to walk through, and then the door just … broke and fell on her,” Betty’s Kitchen employee Sam Cha reported he heard from another staff member on duty at the time of the incident. 

According to Cha, this incident resulted in the hospitalization of the employee after they were unable to “get [themself] up because it was really heavy, and then a bunch of the workers had to help her and work together to get the door off of her.” He added that staff then called an ambulance, but no employee reported “what exactly her injuries were.” 

In an email to The Student, Associate Vice President for Operations Ralph Johnson wrote that he and his team are aware of reports of incidents involving employees in the new building and are reviewing the circumstances of each. “The safety and well-being of our community are of utmost importance to the College,” he said. Johnson added that “out of respect for the privacy of those involved, we do not comment on individual employee injuries or medical care.”

According to an anonymous employee, the door appeared to be a safety concern before this incident. “The door would get stuck on the edge and not fully close. That was already happening to that door, which means it wasn’t lined up anymore,” they said. They also shared that the door had a protruding piece of metal prior to its detachment. “That was always kind of sticking out of it, and cut a few people, small cuts … [and] constantly got snagged on people’s clothing.”

One anonymous employee reported an incident in which “[a sprayer] detached from the wall and just fell,” and  onto another employee. 

Employees also cited what they observe as plumbing issues. “There’s been water or some type of liquid leaking from above the dish pit. We’re just all hoping it’s condensation, but apparently it leaked enough in the ceiling and caused a tile to fall at some point,” one employee said. They added that the temporary solution was to “just put a tap to try to catch it and have it directed to the sink.”

Cha echoed this concern, mentioning the smell of the dishroom. “Usually they would have people to clean it,” he said, “[but] there’s no one to clean the drain, and it makes the whole dishroom smell really bad.”

Faculty members on the Planning, Design and Construction department did not respond for comment on issues concerning the new building. In response to plumbing issues, Johnson wrote, “for any facility related issue a maintenance ticket is submitted so the item requiring repair can be fixed.”

Johnson also said staff moving into any new space often brings previously unseen issues to the forefront. “With any newly opened building, there can be issues to identify and address as a facility begins operating and staff become familiar with its spaces and systems,” he wrote. 

Planning, Design and Construction; Dining; Environmental Health and Safety; and Facilities teams are also assisting with “any issues identified and ensur[ing] that appropriate safety measures and procedures are in place,” Johnson added.

However, Cha believes these issues are not outliers but accurately reflect how poorly the building operates. “It just goes to show how rushed everything was, how they really could have just waited like a few more months to open the new dining hall,” he said. 

Cha further expressed the importance of addressing these issues. “I don’t think all of the workers are aware [of] the safety concerns … unless it’s coming from the workers talking to each other,” he said, adding that these concerns often go unaddressed in meetings.

Looking forward, workers expressed a desire for “more training about safety.” When discussing employees’ stunted adjustment to Betty’s, Cha said, “you have to spend extra time looking for things, and then the actual thing that you were supposed to do gets delayed, and that just sets everyone else behind.”