rant operations would be forced out of busi-
ness by the expensive plan. As an alternative,
industry advocates are seeking tax breaks and
other incentives designed to encourage
restaurant owners to voluntarily provide
health insurance to employees.
Discrimination in the Workplace.The
fast-food industry is also monitoring pro-
posed legislation intended to curtail job dis-
crimination by allowing workers the right to
have juries decide lawsuits against employers
suspected of discrimination in the workplace.
The act would permit the victims of discrim-
ination to seek both compensatory and puni-
tive damages, an option previously restricted
to persons charging racial discrimination.
Industry advocates contend that this legisla-
tion would shift the burden of the culpabili-
ty test to require a business to prove its inno-
cence rather than requiring the plaintiff to
prove its guilt. As such, restaurants would be
forced to resort to hiring persons because of
their demographic traits rather than their
abilities. Although the original form of the
act would not have passed, proponents have
negotiated a compromise with the White
House guaranteeing its passage.
AIDS, E. coli, and Customer Health.The
fast-food industry cannot escape the effects
of the AIDS controversy. According to the
executive vice president of the NRA, Bill
Fisher, a number of restaurants are identified
as employing individuals either suffering
from AIDS or infected with HIV. Once iden-
tified, the restaurants suffer a rapid decline in
business and are often forced to close. As of
July 1990, food service lobbyists were
attempting to revive the Chapman
Amendment (as it was known in the House),
a measure that would exempt food service
operators from providing employees with
AIDS the same rights and privileges as their
healthy peers. Employers would then be able
to reassign infected employees to positions of
comparable salary that did not involve any
food handling. Contrary to the food indus-
try’s desires, the Senate enacted the Hatch
Amendment, which is similar to the
Chapman Amendment with one added qual-
ification. It provides that the secretary of the
U.S. Health and Human Services De-
partment specify annually the diseases that
can be transmitted through food. The Hatch
Amendment further provides that only per-
sons with a designated illness may be reas-
signed. According to Dr. Louis Sullivan, for-
mer secretary of the U.S. Health and Human
Services Department, AIDS cannot be
spread through food or beverages. The net
effect of enacting this law is that food han-
dlers with AIDS may retain their posts, and
restaurants are virtually defenseless against
consumers’ fears.
The winter of 1993 saw an outbreak of ill-
ness caused by E. coli bacteria infection. A
total of 475 cases of illness and three deaths
were reported in the West, predominantly in
the state of Washington. The cause has been
attributed to tainted hamburger meat served
at fast-food establishments operated by
Foodmaker, Inc. (Jack in the Box). Review of
meat vendor qualifications and cooking pro-
cedures was immediately undertaken, but a
precipitous decline in sales could not be
avoided. It was not known whether
Foodmaker would survive or what kinds of
federal legislation might follow.
Environmental Pressures
The fast-food industry was also facing increas-
ing pressure from environmental groups to
become more concerned over the ecological
effect of its products and packaging.
According to these environmental groups,
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in the pro-
duction of the plastic packaging used by the
fast-food industry are responsible for damage
to the ozone layer, which protects life on
earth from the harmful effects of the sun’s
ultraviolet rays. Environmentalists also con-
tend that the plastic packaging made of poly-
styrene foam takes up valuable space in land-
fills, takes decades to decompose, and has no
viable recycling market. Despite some studies
that indicated that the packaging is environ-
mentally sound, McDonald’s, the world’s
largest restaurant chain, began replacing plas-
tic packaging in favor of paper. Although theRubio’s: Home of the Fish Taco (A) 445