0:05  
The restaurant industry is a busy work environment. Customers are hungry, they want to be seated. They want to enjoy their time with friends, and most importantly, they want their food fast. Being a university student comes with many expenses. Whether it's tuition or rent or textbooks, students are always looking for ways to make money. Because of this many turn to waitressing astips are a great way of making extra cash. Leah DeVries a third year creative industry student at Ryerson University. She lives downtown with her older sister and is currently working two jobs to pay rent and a long list of expenses. Leah used to work as a waitress at a burger joint on College Street.

0:52  
Since I had been I had waitress before and I had done this type of job before I didn't really have any high expectations. I had heard rumors that like in Toronto, you make a lot of money when you waitress so like I assumed I'd be making like a good amount of tips. I'd be working late nights, nothing too special I just kind of figured it'd be like a regular waitressing job.

1:10  
Leah was looking forward to the job and couldn't wait to earn some money. However, there's one thing she didn't expect to be faced with and that's sexual harassment. A report by RFC united says that 90% of female restaurant workers have experienced sexual harassment on the job. Leah was sexually harassment customers daily, but her most memorable encounter was with one of her bosses.

1:32  
When I started, there was a really grumpy older owner of the restaurant, and he was there every day. He seemed really nice, we got along and he trusted me with the restaurant. So he gave me a key to the office and things like that and I would close and open the restaurant. Over the time, like we got to know each other he started to ask about like, personal life, we just like oh, like, you know, how school going and like really simple things to just have a nice relationship with your boss. And it just got to the point where he would text me when when it wasn't work related or off work hours. You know he'd ask me for opinions about like furniture in his apartment or you know, like, what he looked like and, and things like that. And it just got to the point where like the the comments were too personal.

2:14  
More often than not employees who experienced sexual harassment in the restaurant industry usually refrained from reporting. In the report by ROC United 70% of women said they feared the situation would get worse if they complain about harassment from customers.

2:29  
And I never really knew how to answer him, because I worked for him. So I didn't want to say no, don't want to say yes so it was just like a very awkward thing for me. It also felt weird to because I felt very uncomfortable, because he would come in and help me close and things like that. And there's nobody else in the restaurant, there's no cameras none of the cameras worked. People don't really care about that stuff.

2:53  
At the end of that summer, Leah decided to quit. Although she didn't work at the burger joint anymore she felt she had to do something about this problem. The problem of not being able to speak up about harassment in the workplace. So she decided to apply to law school and work as a lawyer to help protect women who went through what she experienced.

3:11  
I think this issue is really frustrating, mostly because I know that what I experienced isn't even to the magnitude of what other people experience, like I feel lucky. And so the fact that one in three women are sexually assaulted, it's not an easy situation and it's not something that will disappear very easily. And so in my sense, you know, I want to work in a field where I can really commit so the idea of law school and the idea of working in with justice and the idea of being able to help with like the proof aspect, and just the system in general needs to change.

3:51  
Katrina Wugalter is a third year psychology and neuroscience student at the University of Toronto. She used to live in Edmonton and worked at a restaurant there in order to earn enough money to move and study in Toronto.

4:03  
I worked in a restaurant where the female staff was expected to wear heels every day, but the male staff wasn't. And that already made me uncomfortable just from the start, because that kind of set the tone that the female servers were expected to be sexualized.

4:20  
Similar to Leah, Katrina faced sexual harassment while working at a restaurant. However, it came from customers she was serving. She recalls a day a table of eight obnoxious men who made her feel uncomfortable during one shift.

4:33  
And I remember one day I had this table of eight men and they were in like their 40s or 50s. I just felt really nervous just to serve them in general, because I, I don't know, I just had an expectation that they were going to be maybe like, more difficult than other customers. And then I asked one of the customers like, what can I get for you? And he said an iced tea and your phone number. And so I just kind of like giggled, because like, what else are you supposed to do? Right? Like, it's my job, like, I can't disobey the customer, the customer's always right.

5:13  
Katrina's story is one that many young woman can relate to. Usually, waitresses are not supported by managers when they complain about harassment from customers, or they remain silent so that they don't lose the chances of getting a good tip.

5:26  
So in my head I was just thinking like, this is I'm so uncomfortable, and I should like nobody should have to experience this at work but there's nothing I can do about it. Because if I tell my like managers every time my supervisors, they're just going to say like, you know, that's part of the job. And like, you can't disrespect the customers because we want them to come back and we want them to enjoy their experience. And I'm like, What about me enjoying my day at work like why, why does there they have to come before mine?

5:55  
Some restaurants similar to Katrina's have dress codes that sexualized the female workers, which makes it harder for them to defend themselves. Luckily, the Barbara Schiffer clinic here in Toronto offers a program called 'And Me Too.' This project helps increase access to justice for female employees harassed in the workplace, the biggest issue for female workers is speaking up about harassment. So this initiative helps women voice their complaints receive support when doing so. It aims to change the culture of restaurants so that women aren't subjected to this treatment. 

6:25  
And at the end of the day to its awareness, it's being kind. It's being attentive of the women around you. It's making sure that your friends get home safe at the end of the night when you go out. And so I do that every day, but I hope that one day like my career can completely help as well.