October 2023: The FABS study is interviewing employees who were bullied, harassed, and/or experienced violence in the workplace. Share your story! We are specifically seeking participants from Spanish, Filipino, Punjabi, Farsi, Vietnamese, and Chinese-speaking communities. Interviews can be conducted in any of those languages, or in English if preferred. We offer $75 for participation.
In collaboration with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity, and the Department of History and Sociology at UBC Okanagan are looking for food and beverage sector workers to participate in our research study looking at the impact of COVID-19 public health policies on the health and safety of restaurant workers. We seek to understand how public health restrictions created and/or exacerbated bullying, harassment, and violence against workers.
We are conducting confidential, 60-minute interviews with people who worked in restaurants or bars in BC during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and who experienced any kind of bullying, harassment, or violence. Individuals will receive a $75 honorarium as a thank you for their time. Findings from this research will help us to develop guidelines to prevent harassment, bullying, and violence in food and beverage workplaces.
We are looking to recruit participants who:
- are 18 years of age or older
- were employed at any type of restaurant or bar, including fast food restaurants, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (between March 2020 and April 2022)
- experienced any kind of bullying, harassment, or violence while working.
- are part of Spanish, Filipino, Punjabi, Farsi, Vietnamese, or Chinese-speaking communities.
We know that women (cis and trans), gender diverse, 2SLGBQ+ people, BIPOC and im/migrant people are disproportionately negatively impacted as workers in the food and beverage service sector. Thus, we particularly welcome interviewing people from these communities.
If you are interested in sharing your experiences, or you would like to learn more about the project, please contact: fabs.study@ubc.ca or Suhail Marino at suhail.marino@ubc.ca or 604-822-0200.
Study Co-Principal Investigators: Dr. Chris McLeod, PWHS & Dr. Kathleen Deering, Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity.
