As part of an effort to improve food-safety practices, Chipotle has nurses check whether employees calling in sick are genuinely ill, according to Business Insider.
"The nurse validates that it's not a hangover — you're really sick — and then we pay for the day off to get healthy again," Brian Niccol, Chipotle CEO, said at a Barclays conference Dec. 4.
The policy comes after a 2017 norovirus outbreak among Chipotle customers in Virginia. Store managers had failed to follow safety protocol and an employee worked while sick.
"We have a very different food-safety culture than we did two years ago, OK?" Mr. Niccol said, according to Business Insider. "Nobody gets to the back of the restaurant without going through a wellness check."
The food chain has also introduced a table cleaner that kills norovirus, according to the CEO.