“1000 plates are boiling hot… I’ll collapse in two days” Cooks face heat wave as school starts

https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/ranking/article/028/0002702735

Choi Yun-yeong (47), who works as a cook at a middle school in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, shared her memories of the five-day “intensive cleaning period” she spent in the school cafeteria from July 31 to August 6, when a nationwide heat wave warning and advisory was issued, excluding holidays. “During this period, the internal temperature was close to 40 degrees,” Choi said. “When I was standing in front of the boiling pot, sweat poured down my body so much that I couldn’t tell if I was standing or taking a shower.” Working in sweaty clothes all the time, she developed heat rashes around her stomach and waist. Choi said, “There are times when I can’t breathe (from the heat), and if I don’t cool it down with cold water, I often get dizzy and collapse.”

From late July to mid -August , when the heat wave was at its peak, most elementary, middle, and high school cafeterias across the country operated an “intensive cleaning period.” This is a thorough cleaning of the cafeterias that takes place just before the start of the new school year after the summer vacation, and about 10 cooks and cooking assistants are in charge of this work. Most of them are middle-aged female workers. Since they are paid and made to work during the vacation period, the time given for cleaning is limited to 3 to 5 days before the start of the new school year in order to reduce labor costs. Every year, a small number of non-professional workers do physically demanding cleaning in a short period of time, and this year, the heat wave was added to the mix. This is why a cook said, “I experienced extreme working conditions.”

During the intensive cleaning period, cooking workers must scrub the entire area from the ceiling to the walls, window frames, and floor drains in the pre-processing room, food storage room, and kitchen where ingredients are handled. When cleaning the ceiling or hood, they must remove grease in a painful position. Hood cleaning, which causes many falls, has been outsourced to an outside professional company since 2018, but during the intensive cleaning period, cooking workers are responsible. Myeong Ji-eun (43), who works at a middle school in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, said, “When we clean the ceiling all morning, our shoulders and necks hurt so much that we all have to get acupuncture and go to physical therapy.”

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Does it make sense to clean like this in this heat?

Why did we have to create a period of intensive cleaning in this weather when we clearly knew that heat wave warnings would come every day?

Please pay more attention to this issue.