With the Winter Paralympics officially starting today, Sodexo has once again come under fire for mistreatment of its workers and inadequate training on food handling. These allegations echo our earlier concerns over their food safety record and how it may affect Olympic athletes.

Threatening to mar the spirit and success of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver, reports are surfacing of Sodexo's mistreatment of its employees during the Winter Olympics, including potential cases of unpaid overtime, failure to adequately train workers for the jobs they were asked to perform, and not providing workers adequate food and drink while working.

One such worker is Ana Stefanovic, a resident of British Columbia. She was hired by Sodexo to be a Job-counter attendant said, "I was hired to take on a concierge role, but Sodexo switched me to the kitchen instead. I asked to receive proper food safety training before I handled the athletes' food, but Sodexo refused, and then fired me."

A letter has been sent to Vancouver's Organizing Committee detailing a number of claims from some of the 900 workers that Sodexo hired for the Olympics and Paralympics. These charges included failure to pay for time spent in training, late and absent paychecks, unpaid overtime, rationing of food and water, and as mentioned inadequate food safety training.

Time and again Sodexo focuses more on their public appearance and less about the welfare of their workers. They deserve to be treated fairly, with dignity and respect. And these issues simply highlight a recurring theme of mistreatment for Sodexo.