Dive Brief:

• A Texas branch of national child care provider Little Sunshine Playhouse Operations must pay $43,295 in back wages and damages to an employee who was fired for reporting unsanitary and unsafe conditions, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Aug. 22.
• The worker had reported the childcare provider to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services in August 2023. Claims included food being kept at unsafe temperatures, the kitchen area being unsanitary and the kitchen not being cleaned overnight. The employee said they suffered “severe rashes” from the environment.
• DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated and ruled that the situation was a violation of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

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Dive Insight:

Little Sunshine Playhouse Operations has 35 facilities in nine states. But the scope of the issues raised by this investigation are so much bigger than what happened in Texas.

The act that the Southlake child care provider violated is an amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; it governs a host of food safety issues, including hazard analysis and employee protections.

The operator of a facility must “identify and evaluate known or reasonably foreseeable hazards that may be associated with the facility,”...

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