How Restaurant Chains Are Really Treating Their Workers During The Pandemic

Working anywhere in the food and restaurant industry is tough. Not only do you have to deal with people at their worst — when they're hungry — many are doing it for the kind of money that leaves them living paycheck-to-paycheck. When something like a widespread pandemic disrupts business, it can be devastating for those employees and their families.

So, what's really going on with the tireless workers we depend on to keep our mornings filled with coffee, our lunch breaks bearable, and the busiest of evenings just that much better?

It hasn't been easy. While some companies have tried their best to reach out and support workers at a time when everyone is struggling — some with pay increases and sick leave — others... well, others have been a little more cold-hearted. Tens of thousands of workers have suddenly found themselves without jobs, and that's utterly terrifying. What's it really like for those on the front lines of the restaurant industry? And, is your favorite server now unemployed? Does that smiling face you see at the drive-thru every morning still have a reason to smile?

Here's how these chain restaurants are really treating their employees during the pandemic. 

It's been something of a bumpy ride for Starbucks and their employees, and it started back in the end of March. That's when Business Insider reported that the coffee house giant would pay their employees their regular paychecks for the next 30 days... whether they made it to work or not.

That's pretty amazing, and the also said they're offering those same employees childcare support, mental health and sick pay benefits, and catastrophe pay. With that, employees get 20 free sessions with a therapist each year, and at least partial reimbursement for what they spend on childcare. 

But that all came at the end of a terrifying few weeks when, according to Buzzfeed, stores remained open in spite of the fact that more and more employees got sick as the weeks wore on. While they finally closed their locations to walk-in traffic on March 21, by April 16, employees were once again feeling like things were up in the air. CEO Kevin Johnson announced (via CNBC) that they would take a "monitor and adapt" stance, and that it wouldn't be long before some locations were open again. Still, it isn't without perks: any employee who continues to work will get an extra $3 per hour, at least until the end of May.

Burger King and Popeyes are owned by the same parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), so their policies regarding employees are pretty similar. According to Business Insider, RBI announced they would give bonuses to employees who worked through April, and were going to supply their locations with thermometers to help insure everyone who does report for work isn't sick. On top of that, they also added 14 days of paid sick leave for employees who were asked to self-isolate, or were given a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The program isn't cheap — according to Restaurant Business Online, RBI is fronting $70 million in cash, and sending it to franchisees in the U.S. to help them keep their doors open and their people employed.

It hasn't been all good news, though. The Miami Herald reported that when one Burger King employee developed COVID-19-like symptoms, her manager informed her that if she didn't come to work, she was going to be fired. Fortunately, she had a social media sensation named Abuelita on her side, and Burger King corporate was all over that. 

Independent Burger King franchisees have also made some controversial decisions: it was only after a lot of negative feedback and some public backlash that Burger King's largest franchisee — Carrols Restaurant Group — backtracked on the announcement that they were going to cut employees' pay by 10 percent during the pandemic (via Restaurant Dive).

Taco Bell and KFC — both owned by Yum Brands — have both introduced a number of safety measures designed to help keep their employees safe. According to Forbes, that includes sanitizing wipes to go with every order handed out of a Taco Bell drive-thru, and, at KFC, Plexiglass counter shields and social distancing signs. For both chains, one employee on each shift was going to see their role at their restaurant completely change — their only job for the entire shift would be to clean.

All employees at Taco Bell are seeing their roles change — a lot. For example, anyone who handles cash needs to wear gloves, and change them after every transaction. They're also not the same person that's touching and handing out orders, either, and that's meant a massive shift in the way things are done. They're also supplying their employees with masks, and thermometers for regular health checks. 

But still, employees say that Taco Bell has also made a massive misstep: offering several weeks of a Taco Tuesday deal, where customers were given a free Doritos Loco Taco. The deal was a hit... but only with customers. According to Business Insider, employees weren't happy with the idea that it was encouraging more people to come, and increase employees' risk of exposure. One manager called the deal "probably the most painful and absurd thing they could've done during this time."

First, the good news: Restaurant Business Online announced that Chipotle was going to be giving its employees a financial boost in the form of a 10 percent hourly pay raise, a policy that would be put in place for at least March 16 through April 12, as well as expanding emergency leave benefits. But, by early April, Reuters was reporting that there were problems.

While Chipotle was promising that their 83,000 employees were entitled to be paid if they came down with the symptoms of COVID-19, or if they were in close contact with someone who was symptomatic, employees, their union, and New York City's chair of the Committee on Health were saying that the reimbursement was slow in coming. Employees were also complaining that even when they called in and reported symptoms, they were being told to report for work — unless they had a positive test result... in spite of the fact that there was still a massive shortage of tests. 

Even as that was going on, Chipotle also announced that those employees who were expecting to receive a quarterly bonus were still going to see one. According to CEO Brian Niccol (via CNBC), they were still planning to hand out $6.5 million in bonuses, in spite of the difficult times. Managers were looking at around a $2,000 bonus, while field leaders would be getting around twice that.

According to The Hill, Domino's is thriving — they announced in mid-March that they were fully expecting to hire around 10,000 new employees to keep up with the increased demand. While they had put measures like contact-free delivery in place, other headlines weren't nearly as good — especially in the U.K.

Scotland's The Herald got a copy of the guidelines Domino's issued to workers, and on April 6, they ran a story about how delivery drivers were forbidden from wearing masks. Workers they spoke to were in fear for their safety, and in a statement, CEO David Wild didn't address concerns about employees' masks, simply saying, "... we've strengthened our already high hygiene standards..."

Meanwhile, the BBC was reporting that Domino's had fired employees for bringing up concerns about safety, social distancing, and hygiene. Complaints included a lack of masks and gloves, no hand sanitizer, and as one employee noted: "Nearly all of us have families with conditions [that make them vulnerable to COVID-19.]"

In the U.S., employees had similar concerns. One told Business Insider that stores are very, very small, and it's impossible to practice anything close to social distancing when there's 10 to 20 people in the store at any given time, "resulting in direct and indirect exposure to 100s of people a day." The only way out was to hope to be laid off, and in the meantime, the employee was avoiding all contact with their family to try to keep them safe.

According to Forbes, the pandemic has brought a whole different set of challenges to Papa John's — they can't keep up with demand. In late March, they announced plans to hire 20,000 new employees, from managers and customer service reps to delivery drivers and cashiers. Demand was so great that they were also telling people it was entirely possible to interview, get hired, and start working on the same day.

But what's it like for those employees?

One Reddit threat in r/PapaJohns asked: "Employees, how are your stores preparing for the coronavirus?" The OP said that they had the third case in their county and in preparation, their manager sent their delivery drivers out to buy disinfectant. While some said that their stores were sending people home when they showed the first signs of being sick, that was the minority. Many other responses were not so positive:

"We are doing nothing."

"Nothing at all, fam."

"I've been sick with the flu the past couple weeks and I've still been having to work 60+ hours/week... Papa John's doing nothing and if I ask for time off my pay will get docked."

"Update: we are no longer delivering to the hospitals..."

"Nothing has changed, I'm not even sure our store would close if someone got infected."