'They don't care': Veteran and longtime Bay Area restaurateur fired by VA hospital after sounding alarm about alleged 'below standard' food safety

“They didn’t care,” Berkowitz, 85, told the news station. “It’s below health standards for anyone ... especially for patients who are already vulnerable.”

What happened

When it comes to food safety, Berkowitz knows what he’s talking about.

His 70-year career began by helping out his father, who was in the restaurant business. “I was dipping ice cream by the time I could reach the cabinets,” he told The Daily Journal.

After earning a restaurant management degree from Michigan State University, he worked for several hotel chains, including Hyatt, where he became vice-president of food and beverages when he was just 29. In 1978, he opened his first Max’s restaurant, which eventually became a popular chain.

So Berkowitz understands food safety. Perhaps even more shocking than being fired from his volunteer position at a VA hospital is that — in addition to being an accomplished restaurateur who values food quality and safety — he’s a former second lieutenant, which means he’s a veteran himself.

While working at the VA hospital, Berkowitz told ABC7 he witnessed food being stored at unsafe temperatures and alleges that staff were falsifying temperature logs — and he claims he has photographs to prove it. For instance, he says he saw chili being stored at 65 degrees below the minimum safe temperature for hot food as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“That’s the perfect incubation temperature for E. coli,” Berkowitz said in the interview. He also said he witnessed food that contained meat being labeled as vegetarian.

When he reported these shortcomings to management, he said he was told, “You're not allowed to take pictures. If it were up to me ... you'd never would have got this job.”

The hidden financial impact on whistleblowers

This is a relatively common whistleblower experience, explain researchers Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Gerardo Pérez Cavazos in an article for the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

“Employee whistleblowers report in their lawsuits that, in most of the allegations, firms ignore the issue raised by them, and, in 10% of the allegations, firms try to cover-up the issue internally. In only 6% of cases, firms open an internal investigation,” they wrote.

In Berkowitz’s case, he says not only were his concerns ignored, but he was fired in retaliation for voicing them.

“Employee whistleblowers report that firms typically retaliate against them via firing (in more than one third of all cases), harassment (about 16% of all cases), threats (about 10% of all cases) and demotions (about 6% of all cases). In only 21% of all cases, the firm does not retaliate against an employee whistleblower,” said the article.

Not only do whistleblowers face a potential loss of income, they could also face legal costs and difficulties landing a new job, as well as emotional strain.

Whistleblowers do tend to land on their feet eventually and typically find a new job within about a year, according to Dey, Heese and Pérez Cavazos. In about half of cases (52%), this job is equivalent to or better than their old one, although this may mean moving to a new state or industry. About 10% end up in a worse job and a fifth (21%) become self-employed.