Food: Employee Rights

I read in the Parsha that one must let one's workers eat the produce they are picking. Does this apply to restaurants and the like? Are waiters allowed to eat food for free?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

Truth be told, employees are not entitled to eat from the food they prepare or serve. The boss/owner is under no true obligation to allow even “tasting” the food.

That being said, it is proper ethics and manners to allow employees to taste the food they work with.

The law you mention from the Torah reading in which workers are often allowed to eat from the produce they harvest (and a boss who prevents this is considered to be transgressing!) does not apply in all situations. Indeed, it only applies when working with produce specifically, and even then, only when working with it in the fields. There are further limitations to this allowance which are beyond the scope of this response, as well.

A waiter in someone's house there are certain halachot brought in Shulchan Aruch siman 169 however the context of this halacha is a home setting not a restaurant/business setting.

To summarize employers have an obligation to allow employees to eat from the food they work with. Nevertheless, it is the proper thing to do, to allow employees to eat such food (within reason).

Bava Metzia 87b-92a; CM 337:1-20, OC 169:1