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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChipotle is Going to Offer Sick Days, Paid Vacation to Hourly Workers
On Friday, Chipotle announced theyd soon be offering sick days, paid vacation, and tuition reimbursement for all employeesnot just salaried workers.
According to Nations Restaurant News, the new programs will begin July 1. While Chipotle has long offered these benefits to salaried employees, this is an interesting step towards treating fast food workers like actual human beings. Then again, Chipotle has recently shown a keen (and somewhat unique within the industry) awareness for which way the wind of public opinion is blowing, even when that public opinion is blowing due Stupid. McDonalds moved somewhat in this direction earlier this year in allowing workers to accrue vacation time, but a) the employees had to have been with the company for a year to start racking it up, and more importantly, b) it only applied to non-franchise locations (corporate stores make up only a fraction of the total number of McDonalds locations). Chipotle, fairly unusually within the industry, does not franchise.
Its unclear what form the tuition reimbursement will take, as specific terms are yet to be announced. Starbucks (apparently alone among fast food eateries, if you can even really consider them a fast food place) has a similar program limited to those working at least 20 hours a week, and its probably reasonable to assume Chipotles deal will be similar. Starbucks, however, only extends this offer 49 different degree programs from Arizona State University; it would be interesting if Chipotles deal was somewhat less limiting.
Regardless, the sick days and paid vacation are a significant deal. Though Chipotle has always shown more of an interest in employee retention than many of its competitors (by their own metrics, 95% of all managers are promoted from within), much of their talk of treating their employees well has been more buzzword than actual fact. In moving to allow part-time hourly employees to accrue sick days and paid leave, they appear to be taking a tangible step in the direction of actually backing up their talk.
Source.
Response to Agschmid (Original post)
6chars This message was self-deleted by its author.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)That's the improvement.
hunter
(38,316 posts)And quite a few times from students who should have stayed home.
"Perfect Attendance" should be a felony, not something to celebrate.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)I get so damned mad when co-workers show up sick. We work in very close proximity and it's inevitable that I end up getting sick.
Oh...and we do have sick time, lots of it, and we get mostly paid but they don't want to use it in case there's a party or something they want to call in sick for.
Lastly, the company always hints that you shouldn't call in sick.
calimary
(81,298 posts)Glad you're here! I so agree! Frankly, I want happy workers - just anyway. I want them to feel they can take a sick day when they need to. I want them to feel they're working for decent pay. I want them to feel like they're not so horrendously being taken advantage of, or overlooked. How can workers be productive when they're correctly perceiving that they're being treated like dirt? And if that's the case, how can any business thrive with workers who feel shat upon?