How should a manager respond to a pregnant food worker who has vomiting and attributes it to morning sickness?

• A. Immediately Terminate Employment
• B. Exclude from Work for Rest of Day
• C. Require a Doctor’s Note Verifying Pregnancy-Related Vomiting and Allow Duties to Continue
• D. Transfer to Non-Food Area Without Note

Answer: (C)

When a food worker is vomiting, you must determine whether the situation could pose a risk of contaminating food. If the vomiting is related to a noninfectious condition like pregnancy, the worker may be able to continue performing duties safely, but you need medical confirmation to distinguish it from a contagious illness.

Requiring a doctor’s note to verify that the vomiting is pregnancy-related and then allowing duties to continue gives you a safe, fair, and compliant path. It protects the food and customers while ensuring the employee isn’t unfairly sidelined. With this in place, you can proceed to assign appropriate tasks if the clinician clears the worker for non-food-handling or safe food-handling duties.

Immediate termination isn’t warranted by a single episode of vomiting. Excluding the worker for the rest of the day is overly broad if the cause is pregnancy-related and not contagious. Transferring someone to a non-food area without medical documentation risks unclear guidance about what tasks are safe and appropriate. The medical note provides the needed basis to keep the operation safe while respecting the employee’s health situation.