Working through a pandemic is just something we’re all expected to do despite, well, that whole pandemic thing still happening two-plus years and counting. Inflation, supply chain issues, the Great Resignation and all kinds of things have become commonplace in recent months.
Some employers have responded with better incentives for workers, higher wages and even begrudgingly accepting unionization efforts from their staff. And some, like a North Carolina Chick-fil-A, just asked people to work for free.
According to reports, the fast food franchise found itself in hot water when a social media post offering “volunteers” free food in exchange for working their “drive thru express” at a location in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Mary Meisenzahl of Business Insider reported last week that the program lasted about a day following extreme backlash from people who know that labor is usually compensated by legal tender, not chicken tenders.
“We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express! Earn 5 free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked,” the post read. “Message us for details.”
By the afternoon of July 27, the post was apparently deleted.
Chick-fil-A, of course, is not exactly known for its track record of positive human rights. And as the Washington Post pointed out, there’s a whole slew of things wrong with asking people to work for food. Such as, well, federal labor laws.
The store has been met with backlash for appearing to ignore the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the long-standing federal law that states how employers must pay their employees for all of the hours they work. The Hendersonville location, which is run by a franchisee, responded to the online blowback by saying the “volunteer-based opportunity” was intended for people who “think it’s a good fit for them,” and argued it was different from full- or part-time employment.
If you put aside the not making any money for labor thing, the deal — five entrees for one hour worked — doesn’t really make any sense on several other levels. First of all, that’s a lot of food for an hour worked. Does it multiply if you work two hours? Do you have to eat all the meals at once or do you get coupons like a child entered in a McDonalds summer bowling league, to be redeemed later?
Anyway, the program is dead now and Chick-fil-A is distancing it from its franchisee because it was probably extremely against the law, as Business Insider notes.
A Chick-Fil-A spokesperson told Insider the company did not endorse the program and that the restaurant has decided to end it.
“Most restaurants are individually owned and operated, and it was a program at an individually owned restaurant,” the spokesperson said.
Until fried chicken NFTs become legal currency in America, the rest of us will just have to go back to making money for their labor and using it to buy food instead.
[via Business Insider]
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/chic-fil-a-ends-volunteer-program-outrage-free-sandwiches/