Board of Health Chair Mosqueda leads passage of food safety through new rule to better enforce labor standards

September 18, 2025

The King County Board of Health on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to approve a new rule to require increased food inspections for food establishments that have been found to have violated labor laws and have failed to pay or remedy the labor violation.

The new Rule & Regulation (R&R) 25-02, introduced by Chair Teresa Mosqueda, will allow Public Health Seattle-King County to conduct additional food safety inspections and place a placard at the entrance of a food establishment that has failed to remedy a proven labor standard violation. Public Health will be notified by WA State Labor and Industries (L&I), Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) and the WA Attorney General’s Office (AGO) of a final unpaid or remedied labor law violation after the initial appeal period has passed and where a financial obligation remains unpaid.

“Where there is smoke, there is often fire – if workers’ rights are being violated, we should at the very least make sure the food that is being served meets our public health food-safety standards and work to prevent the public’s health from being at risk,” said Board of Health Chair Teresa Mosqueda. “At a time when the federal government appears dead set on dismantling food inspection and public health infrastructure, this is a common-sense rule that that bolsters our ability to protect consumers, the public at large, and hopefully offers upstream preventative protections to workers by encouraging earlier compliance with labor laws. I’m grateful to my colleagues for their support in approving this vital public health measure.”

Under WA State law, Public Health is allowed to conduct a more frequent inspection for a series of risk-based reasons, and the proposed R&R would allow Public Health to return to a food establishment that has been found to be non-compliant with a financial obligation due to a final determination of a labor standard violation.

Labor standard violations include situations like preventing or limiting the use of paid sick leave, withholding pay or underpaying, forced overtime, or no access to rest and meal breaks. Workers denied breaks make mistakes or don’t feel like they can say no when employers insist that they work sick. And that compromises the safety of the food and customers’ health.

“With the CDC scaling back parts of foodborne illness surveillance especially for listeria, we are losing some of those upstream warning lights that help us act fast,” said Board of Health Vice Chair Quiana Daniels during the meeting. “If the federal early warning lights are dimmer, it’s on us locally to turn ours up. I think this rule does exactly that, by linking proven labor standards violations to more frequent health inspections. It’s really simple public health math.”

Under the new rule, if L&I, AGO or OLS find a violation then Public Health Inspectors will be asked to conduct a normal food-safety inspection and will post a placard next to the food rating sign indicating the food establishment is undergoing increased health inspection due to a labor violation according to LNI, AGO or OLS. However, this additional placard can be removed immediately if the establishment remedies the violation or further challenges the decision.

It is expected that increased inspections will be rare – roughly 15-20 times per year – because the vast majority of food establishments remedy issues.

Watch the full meeting here.