Judge orders back pay, rehires for fired Jimmy John's organizers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Twin Cities.com

By Julie Forster

A federal administrative law judge has ordered a Twin Cities Jimmy John's franchisee to reinstate six workers fired illegally more than a year ago after they spoke up publicly about their lack of sick pay. The franchise owners also were ordered to pay the employees back wages.

The employees are part of the Industrial Workers of the World, a union that is trying to organize Jimmy John's workers at 10 Twin Cities' stores owned by MikLin Enterprises.

The six workers were fired after they put up 3,000 copies of posters on community bulletin boards near the stores and in neighborhoods in February 2011 suggesting that customers might get sick due to workers making sandwiches while sick. Managers removed the posters when they saw them.

The judge, Arthur Amchan, concluded that the posting of the sick day posters was protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act and that the owners and some managers engaged in unfair labor practices by removing union postings and encouraging others to take them down.

Read more: http://www.twincities.com/ci_20462507/judge-orders-back-pay-rehires-fired-jimmy-johns

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FULL story at link.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Fantastic!

Bravo! Brave workers, brave judge.

When we're right, we're united, and we hang tough... we win.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. I know the owner.

He threatened to leave Chicago over a tiny employee tax. The resounding silence shocked him.
Then again, he did poison 14 people here with bad product.

[davsand]

11. He's a pig. I refuse to spend any money with his company.

I do think the food tastes pretty good--when it isn't contaminated with salmonella infested alfalfa sprouts anyway. He's such a morally bankrupt repulsive individual that I can't bring myself to give him or his company a cent. He's vigorously fought against his employees' right to collective bargaining, he's posted photos on the internet of endangered animals he's hunted for sport, and he's a HUGE Republican. YUCK!!!

I can't stomach it.



Laura

[SnowCritter]

3. Because we all know that unions are no longer necessary

Given the chance, every employer will do what's right for their employees and customers.

[AllyCat]

7. +1!

[carlos3k]

4. A substantial victory!

An Injury to One is an Injury to All

KSTP coverage:
http://kstp.com/news/stories/s2593965.shtml

[liberalhistorian]

5. I will never, ever, ever

understand employers who insist on employees coming in to work when they're sick, especially if they're in food service or other positions involving close customer contact. ESPECIALLY food service, you'd think the last thing they'd want is customers getting sick from their product.

I remember a past job many years ago when I was in the hospital with bacterial bronchitis and shortly after that I broke my wrist and had to have surgery on it. They actually wanted me to come into work even before I was released from the hospital, and were especially angry at the broken wrist. I had to sign an "absence warning" when I returned. If I hadn't needed the job so much, I would have told them right then and there where they could put their stupid fucking useless job and what they could do with it (and it was useless, really, it wasn't like the job was a critical social necessity or anything like that). NO job is worth your health or the health of others or is more important than your health or your family. NO. JOB. And this was a cube farm, so it was easy for employees to all catch each other's illnesses. Somehow, the PTB never seemed to grasp that very simple little fact.

[bigmonkey]

14. To admit that illness needs to be addressed at the societal level belies their "philosophy".

It's natural to address disease at a social group level. They can't admit that, because their beliefs are supposed to be "natural". The facts ruin their framing, so they must be suppressed.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. I hear you...

Way back when, I worked in retail. We had no sick days and were penalized for taking any time off. Coming to work with your nose dripping all over the place while trying to talk to customers is really awful.

[liberalhistorian]

17. Oh, I know retail and food service

are among the worst offenders when it comes to this issue, but I still just do not get that at all. From a purely practical business standpoint, if I'm an owner or manager, even if I don't give a pellet of rat shit about my employees, I'm not gonna want to infect or turn off my customers or make them ill. That's just not good business practice if you want to have a good reputation and stay in business. Because most people, if they see that an employee isn't well, aren't gonna want to patronize that business because the last thing they want is to get sick. I know that when I've encountered an employee at a retail or food business who was obviously sick (the most common being colds), I wanna get the hell away from that place and I sure as shit don't want them handling my food or money or merchandise I'm buying. There've been a couple times where I've actually talked to managers or owners and told them exactly what I thought of them forcing ill employees to work, both the inhumanity of it and the danger of it to customers and other employees and that I would not be patronizing them because of it.

So I just don't get it, from a business standpoint.

[Ash_F]

18. Newsflash: They give no shits about their workers NOR their customers

nt

[liberalhistorian]

20. But they DO care about their business

and their precious ever-loving almight profits, which are affected by their reputation, which, in turn, is driven by customers. No customers equals no profits and no reputation, which then means no business.

[Odin2005]

23. A lot of employers assume all workers fake being sick to get off work.

Even when they see that they are obviously sick. It's idiotic.

[myrna minx]

6. K&R n/t

[Eyerish]

8. K&R

Excellent news!

[annabanana]

9. Nice to see the Wobblies name again. . .

They are the only logical counterweight to the IMF and the World Bank.

[geardaddy]

10. K and R

Excellent work IWoW brothers and sisters.

[HotRodTuna]

12. I've worked in many restaurants over the years (before I finished school)

and don't recall whether or not I had paid sick leave; I doubt it but it certainly would have been nice.

That being said, those workers shouldn't have been too surprised that they got fired, trashing your employer publicly will typically get you canned. I'm glad they got their jobs back, although I wonder what the work environment will be like now.

What's the standard on this? Do fast food workers typically get paid sick leave? I'm guessing no, which is why they're trying to unionize. I've never had a Jimmy Johns, although I've seen a couple around Houston. May have to try them out.

[Ash_F]

19. Payed leave was not main issue, they were forced make people food while sick.

They were not allowed to call off. Not anymore.

[HotRodTuna]

21. You'd think the health department would have laws that prohibited sick workers from making food

Pretty freaking stupid of them.

I once went into a sandwich shop here in Houston where one woman was coughing and sneezing while making a sandwich and another was having a cigarette at a table right next to the counter while doing some paperwork. Very distatesful. Not surprisingly, they're out of business now.

[Egalitarian Thug]

22. There are, but the laws that protect workers and consumers are rarely

enforced unless it gets media attention. You think that waitress would have got to keep her $12,000 tip if the local news had not picked up on it?

Refusing to enforce the law is rampant throughout America.

[DallasNE]

13. I'm Surprised By This Court Order

I thought most companies ended sick pay a long time ago by converting "vacation" to "paid time off" and then "allowing" you to use this paid time off for sick days.

[Omaha Steve]

16. The order is because they were fired for PROTECTED activity

The sick pay issue is not part of the case itself. Union activity was the case.

[mrmpa]

24. I hate PTO (paid time off)..........

one place I worked, if you wanted paid for a holiday, you used PTO, even though the place was closed. I only worked there while I finished my degree and got the hell out.