The manager of a Pizza Hut in Jacksonville, Fla. urged employees to resist evacuating the area too early in the face of Hurricane Irma, threatening to punish any employee that failed to show up to work as long as the restaurant remained open.
The memo warned workers that, while safety and security was the number one priority, they had a responsibility and commitment to the community. The note also told employees, in bold, that they “must” return within 72 hours of evacuating.
“If evacuating, you will have a 24-hour period before storm ‘grace period’ to not be scheduled,” the manager told employees via a note posted to the company wall. “You cannot evacuate Friday for a Tuesday storm event! Failure to show for these shifts, regardless of reason, will be considered a no call/no show and documentation will be issued.”
Critics took to social media, blasting the manager for failing to put safety first, with the “Fight For $15” movement taking the charge.
Pizza Hut demanding Florida workers risk their lives for min wage. GTFO. H/T @KatiSipp #HurricaneIrma #Fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/RQPLLlBVU2
— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) September 9, 2017
“All locations in the path of Irma are closed and will remain closed until local authorities deem the area safe,” Pizza Hut spokesman Doug Terfehr told The New York Post.
Terfehr added that a franchise operator “addressed the situation” with the manager in question.
Irma hit the Florida coast Sunday and made its way up through the state into Georgia and Alabama. Almost a quarter of homes along the chain of islands in the Florida Keys were completely destroyed and nearly 65 percent of homes faced some sort of damage, according to CNN.
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