Pizza Time Manager Fires Employee Who Complained About Subfreezing Work Conditions
Well that was quick: the Pizza Time employee who told reporters that the store's manager had shut off the heat and was making them work in a subfreezing store, was fired. This guy really is a terrible boss.
According to King5, which broke the original story, the employee was told yesterday that he didn't have to serve his suspension for complaining about the temperature, and was called in to work that afternoon. When he got there, he was fired. The owner, Luke Benjamin, says they mutually agreed to part ways. Fortunately, the ex-employee says he has received several job offers since the story broke, so we hope he is happy in his new, hopefully warmer, job.
Cold Pizza Employee No Longer Employed [King5]
Thanks, Charles!
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Comments:
@penarestel: I don't think he was blowing any whistles. The manager wasn't breaking any laws, just being a jerk.
@penarestel: That's the bad thing when you 'mutually agree to part ways'.
If you did nothing wrong you should no NEVER QUIT, let them fire you. Then you might have something.
But if you quit, then what can you do?
What would OSHA have to say about working conditions like these? Are you sure there aren't laws?
@homerjay wants Boston Legal back!: The news story from yesterday say they are not breaking any laws.
"The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries says there is no law regarding the temperature of a room you have to work in, unless you're working in extreme situations like cold storage or foundries. "
@stanner: Well if he reported it, even if it was found that there was no law being broken, then he's still protected from retaliation.
Or maybe that's just state to state.
Please...the place was hardly dangerous. It was just cold. If I had an employee that went to the reporters, I'd can his a** too.
@idip: some places simply don't fire people for this reason. i worked for an employer once that had a policy of not firing people - instead, they would adjust your schedule in such a way to ensure you would quit.
The owner of this pizza place probably kicks kittens and molests little boys.
Hopefully people in Washington will refuse to patron a store that cannot treat their employees with respect, even if that means the employees will be forced to find other jobs.
@penarestel: Only if he was reporting it to OSHA or law enforcement agency.
From what I can tell, he reported it to the media. Thus no protection.
If someone wanted to at least cost the pizza store more in legal fees than energy it could be argued that cutting the heat was a not so subtle way of laying off employees (making coming to work unreasonably miserable) to avoid unemployment costs.
Since he has job offers it doesn't work, but otherwise I would file an unemployment claim anyways, and sue them if it was rejected.
@penarestel: Well if he reported it, even if it was found that there was no law being broken, then he's still protected from retaliation.
If there's no law being broken then there's nothing to report, and thus nothing to retaliate for as far as any legal protection is concerned. You aren't protected from general complaints about your job that you choose to make public.
It would be awesome if all those job offers this guy got were also offered to every other still current employee of this place. Losing all of his employees at one would REALLY be payback for being an asshole.
People, people: this is a pizza place. Just leave the oven door open a crack (but be sure to, you know, crack a window or something).
@penarestel: @mac-phisto: It's entirely possible that this kid was threatened with just that. Thankfully, the kid's got offers lined up. Suck it, pizza nazi.
@johnfrombrooklyn: Hypothermia isn't dangerous? I mean, it only kills what? ~650 people in the US a year? Clearly not an issue.
What I have yet to hear on any report on this is how the pizza guy got the yeast in his dough to work properly in such non-ideal conditions.
Really though, from the sound of it this will be just another shuttered up pizza stand before too long.
@octopede: If I recall from the original article, most of the oven heat is vented out. And if they crack the oven door, it might ruin the pizzas, which would be a problem all its own.
Something I was wondering yesterday was about health code. I've worked for every major chain except Dominos, including as a manager, and I can't imagine how it's sanitary to have people slapping dough and topping while wearing coats. I know I wouldn't want to eat anything made that way.
@penarestel: There is not a lot of real protection for whistle blowers despite what the laws say. Companies just find some other reason to fire you and if you do complain about being fired the government does nothing about it.
There is such a thing as a, "hostile work environment."
@mac-phisto: I don't recall what the specifics are, but in WA state if your scheduled ours fall below a certain point for 30 consecutive days, it is a de facto firing.
@howie_in_az: Lacy, WA isn't one of those places people stop at unless you have a specific reason to be going there.
@johnfrombrooklyn: If you were dumb enough to keep your pizza place well below room temperature but let your wifey run a space heater in her office, you shouldn't whine if the media hears about it.
Why doesn't someone find the phone number to this a**hole. Let's call him and tell him what we think of his treating workers like they are subhuman.
When will workers fight for some respect?
@johnfrombrooklyn: And hopefully you would be paying unemployment claims for firing people for no good reason. If your boss is out to make your working conditions unbearable, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to complain about it.
@floraposte:
I'm fairly certain most people wash their clothing much more often than their coats. Also, when I go out to scrape ice off my car in the morning I usually end up with road salt residue on my coat as I lean over the car, no road salt on my clothes underneath though. Can't say I'm interested in trying a pizza "seasoned" with that.
This pizza shop owner needs to write a book, "How to save on operating costs and endear yourself to your employees, members of public"
Oprah should then endorse it!
@catskyfire: Having spent the better part of my youth working in pizza places, you can't "ruin" a pizza by cracking the oven door. Heck, you can leave the door open and the pizzas will still cook. It takes awhile for a 600 degree pizza oven to go cold.
@Jakuub: Oh, it's an issue. If employees of a local eatery are being treated in that way, I want to know about it, because I do NOT want to eat the food that is coming from there.
Workers need to stop looking to the media and the law for help.
Just because there's no state law regarding the temperature in workplaces doesn't mean that the workers couldn't have won this victory.
If they had organized themselves into a union and negotiated for working conditions, and temperature of the workplace being one of them, winning would've been an option.
When labor crosses their arms the world seizes.
@penarestel: Even when whistleblowers ARE supposed to be protected, they still get routinely screwed. Worse, they frequently can't find work in their industry ever again. The happy part of this story is that people WANT to hire him after hearing the story. I call that a win.
@wewanttheearth: Do you think this employer would have refrained from firing his employees for organizing? Yes, it's illegal. No, that doesn't stop anyone. If you think that "the law" and "unions" have nothing to do with one another in the US, you're clueless.
@wewanttheearth: I hope you are joking? Do you really expect a pizza joint to organize and form its own union (or join an existing one?). Get real. These folks are the definition of "unskilled labor" and can be replaced at the drop of the hat. You tell the boss that you are organizing and refuse to work unless conditions are met he will just fire you and hire 5 more kids looking for minimum wage level work.
The media was the correct approach. Shame the guy into changing his ways or face customer retribution, and assure yourself of coming off as the good guy for taking the hit for your coworkers.
If anybody wants to give these monsters a piece of their mind here is some contact info.
Pizza Time
920 Hensley St NE
Lacey, WA 98516
(360) 491-1111
Don't pizza places have big ovens that generate heat?
![[pizzatime.com]](http://pizzatime.com/mpix/business/cef459e22f.jpg){kind=link}
Uh, what happened to whistle-blower protection laws?