Wendy's restaurant at Mandela Circle reopened Friday morning in time to serve the lunch crowd after having been closed Thursday by Health Department Environmental Health Division inspectors who found six of the employees on duty working without food-handler cards.
A restaurant manager who declined to give his name said Friday morning that the workers "had their cards, they just weren't carrying them with them" when the inspection occurred.He refused further comment.
Environmental Health Division director Ethlyn Joseph said the employees did not possess current cards, contrary to the manager's claim.
After a flurry of activity Friday morning to arrange for the employees's food-handler card applications to be processed promptly so that the popular fast-food restaurant could reopen as soon as possible, it all became a semi-moot point.
"I went over to do the reinspection at 11:45 a.m.," Joseph said shortly after noon, "and all of the employees there did have their cards." Those on duty consisted of two managers and 12 other workers, she said, but did not include the six who had failed to produce cards on Thursday.
Virgin Islands restaurant workers by law must carry their health cards with them whenever they are on duty. "Some of these are new employees," Joseph said, and if they do not have cards, they are not allowed to work until they get them.
A sign on the Wendy's doors early Friday said the restaurant would be "open for lunch today" — although when told of this at mid-morning, Joseph said it was news to her. "I'm calling them right now," she said shortly before 11 a.m. "They cannot open without a reinspection."
After making the call, she said the restaurant wouldn't reopen until a reinspection confirmed that all employees on duty had current health cards. She said she had been at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital all morning consulting with Dr. Audrea Thomas, acting Environmental Health Division officer, to expedite the issuance of the cards.
"I realize the restaurant wants to be open, and I'm trying to help them do that," Joseph said. However, she added, she was aware of ways restaurant owners sometimes try to avoid having to produce cards.
Acting Health Commissioner Lucien Moolenaar said, "The staff is well aware of the problem and will do everything to expedite" the processing of the employees' applications.
Joseph said she wants the community to feel it has safe places to eat. It is a familiar practice at many restaurants for the owner or manager to have on hand an envelope containing photocopies of all employees' current health cards, she noted. Had that been the case yesterday, she said, and had copies of all the employees' cards been available, Wendy's would have remained open.
