Would you eat at a restaurant where employees don’t have to wash their hands?
The Story
Our new U.S. Senator Thom Tillis made an interesting statement at a hearing last week: Restaurants shouldn’t force their employees to wash their hands.
Sen. Tillis: Maybe restaurants shouldn’t require hand-washing (with video) http://t.co/RReuDYuQB1 pic.twitter.com/qOsXs9GB5c
— Charlotte Observer (@theobserver) February 3, 2015
Say what?
– Tillis calls mandatory employee hand-washing an unnecessary regulation. Here’s the video:
– If an eating establishment — like a Starbucks, he mused — doesn’t want to make hand-washing a requirement, then they shouldn’t have to!
– And if it decides not to, it should be required to hang a sign saying it doesn’t mandate hand washing for employees!
– And then, market forces will decide whether they want to patronize a restaurant that doesn’t require hand-washing!
Gross. #NC Sen. Thom Tillis says he opposes health regs like having employees wash hands after using the bathroom: http://t.co/lhgS99cQVu — NARAL (@NARAL) February 4, 2015
5 reasons why this is ridiculous
– I love my chai tea lattes, but a sign saying that my Starbucks barista doesn’t wash up after using the bathroom would end that $5 habit right then and there. And considering how often I visit Starbucks, that could shake the U.S. economy.
– Isn’t forcing a restaurant to hang up a sign saying it doesn’t require hand-washing as much of a regulation as one saying it does?
This Republican senator is fighting for your freedom not to wash your hands in the bathroom http://t.co/XQN9OSWUct pic.twitter.com/TvO0VCSR4a
— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) February 3, 2015
//><!--– It’s hard enough making my kids wash their hands before eating dinner at home. A sign at Chick-fil-A saying that even the cool teenager who gets to serve up nuggets all day doesn’t have to wash his hands ain’t helping my case.//--><!
The Tillis hand-washing comment is now being mocked on Twitter at a rate of about 15 tweets/minute: https://t.co/GtN1aUNsQe — Colin Campbell (@RaleighReporter) February 3, 2015
– On the flip side, it would conserve water. And soap. And electricity for those odd Dyson hand dryers that I never manage to use without touching the insides and getting skeeved out.
If Thom Tillis is gonna give you the ole stinkpalm, it’s okay as long as he tells you about it http://t.co/uPtwAdTpo6 pic.twitter.com/KJQ9Q34R9l
— Jeremy Markovich (@deftlyinane) February 3, 2015
//><!--– Tillis makes the point that probably nobody would go restaurants that don’t require employee hand-washing and they would go out of business. I was an English major, but that doesn’t sound like good economic policy to me.//--><!
Thom Tillis, ladies and gentlemen. Contagious disease can be a necessary market corrective. http://t.co/Kwcg1xA1Jz — Greg Lacour (@greglacour) February 3, 2015
//><!--– Don’t people think politicians are dirty anyhow? Sen. Tillis, this isn’t helping Congress’s reputation.//--><!
C5’s Take
Yeah, not in favor of no hand-washing by employees at restaurants.
The invisible hand may control the free market — but it may not be washed, Thom Tillis says http://t.co/ALYppYpsIkpic.twitter.com/7qQGIzVYSL — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 3, 2015
Photos: Jeff Siner / Charlotte Observer & Raleigh News & Observer
This story was originally published February 4, 2015 at 1:10 AM with the headline "Would you eat at a restaurant where employees don’t have to wash their hands?."