Two employers agreed to participate in the study. The first,
“Restaurant A”, accepted an exploratory study requested by its
union; this was a full-service, fine dining (North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS) Canada, 2012) restaurant staffed
90 E. Laperriere et al. / Applied Ergonomics 58 (2017) 89e101
exclusively by men. The restaurant specialized in buffet service
which led to a high volume of dishes that were transported on very
large trays. Fifty hours’ observation and interviews were done with
seven male employees at Restaurant A in 2003; these were volunteers
recruited with the help of the union. Results of this stage
were presented for validation to 12 employees who had not been
previously observed or interviewed.