Coronavirus: KFC, Pizza Hut owner asks staff to accept reduced hours or face redundancy

Friday, 24 April 2020

Restaurant Brands has asked staff to reduce their hours indefinitely or face redundancies.

The fast food giant owns popular chains KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl's Jr and Taco Bell. 

Restaurant Brands NZ chief executive Arif Khan said in a statement to staff contactless delivery and drive through would open during level 3, and dine-in would open in alert level 2 after staff had been trained to work safely.

Khan said fewer staff were required to implement social distancing and it was unclear how busy stores would be at each alert level, so Restaurant Brands proposed temporary changes to avoid redundancies.

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'We don't know for how long these changes would be necessary,' Khan said.

In addition, we do not know how busy the stores will be at each alert Level.

Restaurant Brands Group chief executive Russel Creedy earned $806,000 last year while the company booked a $30 million profit.

The company received $21.8m for 3651 staff from the Government wage subsidy scheme. 

Restaurant Brands said it would choose who would work, and how many hours, depending on each store's needs each day.

Staff would be given two hours notice telling them whether they would be needed for a shift. However, even if staff were not needed they were required to be on call.

They could also be asked to work all, or part of, their shift at a nearby store that was short staffed, the company said.

If New Zealand returned to level 4 then all these changes would be voided, and new arrangements would be introduced.

Staff had until 12pm on Friday to accept the terms or face redundancy.

'If you do not respond to us by the due date above, then we will assume that you are not able to and/or do not want to work your shifts when our stores reopen. In that event, redundancy may be a potential outcome and we would comply with your employment agreement,' Khan said.

A KFC employee, who Stuff has agreed not to name, said she felt the company's email was 'threatening' in its tone.

'It's scary to be honest. I need to have a job at the moment especially in times like this you don't want to lose your job,' the worker said.

'I'm lucky I still have a job, but [the email] feels very threatening.'

Restaurant Brands was also hiring delivery drivers for Pizza Hut and KFC as independent contractors, rather than employees, which meant it wouldn't have to pay drivers the minimum wage, sick pay or offer other employee protections.

Unite Union national secretary Gerard Hehir said Restaurant Brands was using 'bullying and intimidation' tactics to get its workers to accept pay cuts for returning to work.

'They're forcing workers to sign. There's a whole range of issues here. We've asked our members to not take the deal,' Hehir said.

He said Restaurant Brands' reason for such flexibility was concerns that business could be quiet even at lower alert levels, was unjustified.

'KFC is one of the most popular restaurants. When they open in level 3 there will be queues around the block.'

During the lockdown people around the world tried to recreate its famous 11 spice recipe.

On its Facebook page a post by KFC announcing it was opening its drive through next week had more than 3800 reactions and comments.

Restaurant Brands has been approached for comment.