A Pizza Hut told Irma-fleeing employees they could be punished for skipping shifts

[turbinetree]

Source: Washington Post

A manager of one Pizza Hut in the path of Hurricane Irma threatened to discipline workers who evacuated for the storm outside of a designated time frame and the brand has come under fire on social media for the shameful policy.

A photo began circulating on Twitter of a memo posted for employees in one Jacksonville Pizza Hut location, with an explicit list of instructions for employees.

To all Team members, the memo begins, before laying out a policy that dictates that employees cannot evacuate more than 24 hours before the storm and must return within 72 hours. Failure to show for these shifts, regardless of reason, will be considered a no call/no show and documentation will be issued, it reads. After the storm, we need all TMs available to get the store up and running and serve our communities as needed.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2017/09/11/a-pizza-hut-told-irma-fleeing-employees-they-could-be-punished-for-skipping-shifts/?utm_term=.876fa8e53c64

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So Pizza Hut, do you f*cking think that an entire state was hit with a hurricane that was over 400 miles across and had a eye that was over 100 miles big, and that just maybe some of your employees will be out of gas , water, and food, or have family members that are sick, but your owner of this pizza hut thinks that profit is ore important, ................this is why I do not go into Pizza Hut.

So Pizza Hut said that it was not and is not a policy..................then why did this happen................in the first place

When you have a "UNION" contract it says in the language and scope of the contract that if there is an act of "God" your protected from being fired

[all american girl]

1. This shits been going on forever...been there in my younger days and no one cared....

[marybourg]

3. Too true.

Working a job like that as a teenager helps encourage one to get some kind of education, if at all possible, so as to not have to be treated like that as an adult.

[all american girl]

5. mmm no...I worked with a lot adults...

sorry, but they were great workers... I'm just saying, it's the same as back in the old days, but people seem to be caring now

[marybourg]

6. Where did I say anything about the workers?

I was saying how badly the workers are treated

[all american girl]

7. Some of us thought the way we treated was OK...depended on the manager...

problem is these days that having these kind of jobs is looked down on, but back in the day when it wasn't a big deal...you could make some sort of a life...had friends and works able to do that...it's not beneath us...it's life.

[marybourg]

8. Well, if you were treated OK, that's fine.

But many people weren't treated O.K., and these workers that were told when to evacuate and when to return certainly weren't treated O.K., in my opinion. Do you think the executives of that company were told when to evacuate and when to return? I'd prefer to be the executive if I had to work for that company.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I'm sure plenty of other companies

did similarly.

Corporations are soulless.

[PatrickforO]

4. Because it is a franchise.

So here's the deal for the guy who owns it:

Pizza Hut has a franchise fee of $25,000 for a 20-year agreement, although the total initial investment ranges between $297,000 and $2,109,000. Additionally, franchisees must pay the company ongoing royalty fee of 6% on all sales, as well as an additional 3% to be applied toward national marketing efforts.

Basically, Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut and controls all new franchises for it and Toxic Belch, doesn't lose a dime. EVER. The risk is all on the franchisee, who has to operate a restaurant with the franchise fee amortized, usually over five years, AND pay 9% off all sales.

Funny thing, according to 'Pizza Today,' a trade journal for pizzerias, " a profit margin of 7 percent is the average for the pizzeria industry. So, for every dollar in sales, only seven cents is left over to take home as profit."

Unfortunately, the average profit margin of 7% is below the 9% taken by Yum Brands. This means, of course, that if you are the owner of a Pizza Hut store, then you have to be brutal about labor costs, about all costs, actually, to make a dime.

This, turbine, is why I hate capitalism so very, very, very much, and have often said that capitalism sucks. Because it does. I have nothing at all against small entrepreneurs at all. My beef is with Yum Brands, which sucks so much profit off the top that the franchise owners get to fight a losing battle month after month, year after long year, never quite getting ahead.

As Tolkien's character Galadriel would say, because of excessive franchise fees, royalties, marketing and other fees, most franchise owners fight that 'long defeat.'

The REAL villain here is Greg Creed, the CEO of Yum Brands, who last year 'earned,' according to Salary.com, "As Chief Executive Officer of YUM at YUM BRANDS INC, Greg Creed made $15,324,582 in total compensation. Of this total $1,188,942 was received as a salary, $3,591,094 was received as a bonus, $4,500,008 was received in stock options, $5,500,066 was awarded as stock and $544,472 came from other types of compensation."

Sigh. Again, look how capitalism sucks.

This franchise owner is just a little guy, scared to death he won't be able to make ends meet. Maybe. Or maybe he's also an asshole. But Creed and capitalism are the real villains here.

[zentrum]

9. Good points.

[Yavin4]

10. No one is forcing anyone to buy a Yum brand franchise

The numbers you cited in your post are freely available to anyone who wants to do any due diligence. Maybe if more people wouldn't buy into their franchise, then the terms of the deal would be more favorable.

[PatrickforO]

17. I suspect that will happen if minimum wage is raised throughout the US.

Because a franchise has to be do-able or else selling it becomes impossible and no one wins.

[Yavin4]

20. Maybe in the long run that's a good thing.

Maybe the money going into buying franchises will be put to better use and create better jobs.

[melm00se]

13. 7% profit margin

do you know if that is gross or net profit?

[PatrickforO]

16. Not sure. I googled profit margin pizza hut store

and came up with that pizza trade journal I cited in post.

[melm00se]

21. the would be a big big difference

if it is gross margin, the 7% fee that PH charges would wipe out any profits for the local franchise owner.

if it is net margin, that profit would be after all the costs (included the franchise/marketing fees) are deducted from the gross margin.

if it was former, I can't see anyone buying into the franchise model. if it is the latter, 7% might not be too bad (but I have no frame of reference to determine if that is a good net margin for a local restaurant).

[Bengus81]

19. There are lots of Pizza Hut delivery stores here.........

It wouldn't cost $5-$10,000 to open on of those plus your franchise fees. Hell,they just rent a very small space in a strip mall,get some ovens and employees and go. They one I go to is busy all the time as I usually pick up. They charge extra for delivery and the way I understand it the delivery person gets none of it,they only get tips.

Pizza Hut franchises around here (this is the City where Pizza Hut started) have all made fortunes,most are well know here,some have run for office. Those owners were raking it in when those large pizzas were 1.45 in the 1970 when a friend of mine worked at one.

[longship]

11. The definition of a "dick move"

That manager is a dick.

[ProgressiveValue]

12. Do they even need all those employees at this time?

Do people tend to go out for pizza and order delivery during powerful hurricanes that blow everything apart and drown the rest?

[Flaleftist]

22. Not during, but there is a high demand before and after.

Especially after if the store has power and customers in the area don't. Of course, nobody needs a pizza. The right thing to do, IMO, would be to let the employees who wanted to evacuate to go without fear of repercussions and offer bonus pay to employees who were staying home for the time they work before and after the storm. If not enough people were staying around then just shut down for a while.

[left-of-center2012]

14. The one thing I want during a hurricane is ...

... to have pizza delivered.

[treestar]

15. How many customers did they think they were

going to have during a hurricane? And they cannot dictate that the hurricane lasts 72 hours only. Morons.

[dembotoz]

18. Waffle House index.. one measure of storm severity is if these stores remain open

Saw it on the news a number of times
So Pizza hut clown decided to match it

Usually local manager does not have authority to change toilet paper rolls.
Would imagine the word came down from a higher pay grade

Local manager motto
Mine is not to reason why mine is just to do or die