KINGSTON, Jamaica – Trade unionist and Government Senator Kavan Gayle has lashed out at local fast food franchises, for allegedly sending home employees, while there are still long lines filing into their restaurants.

Senator Gayle said that the franchises are using the lay-offs to dismiss workers, in order to, avoid the provisions of the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act.

“There are some entities that are still opening and still satisfying the needs of the public, yet they are laying off the workers, and you want to know why are these entities, which still continue to serve, still continue to have long lines and profit are laying-off workers?”

“Why is a franchise that is serving the public food in the first instance sought to lay off a percentage of the workers, when you have long lines and serving mega meals? The big deal should have been that those workers be given an opportunity for job rotation,” Gayle said in his contribution to the debate on the tourism workers pension scheme regulations in the Senate on Friday (May 1).

“How do you determine who eats and who don’t eat in a situation like this? In these circumstances, when we are facing a crisis, consultations must take place with the workers, and every effort must be given to save employment,” he said.

Senator Gayle who is also President of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) also dismissed suggestions from Opposition Senator Andre Haughton for the use of short term contracts which, he said, only meets the needs of the employers as it exposes workers to being used because of the shortness of the contracts.  

Local Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise owner Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ), had announced last week that, with sales plummeting by more than 50 per cent due to the curfews, it is about to lay-off staff in order to remain viable.

In a statement, managing director Mark Myers said that while it is in full support of the Government-imposed restrictions, it has had to implement several changes to its operations.

“Our customers, whose lives have also been negatively impacted, have been restricted in their ability to visit us due to early closures of our restaurants during some of our most patronized times of the day.  As a consequence, we have experienced significant declines in sales and transactions of more than half of our business,” he said.

On Friday last, the locally owned fast food outlet Mother’s announced the closure of its 18 restaurants island-wide for 30 days, leaving many workers and vendors out of work.