Melody Walker says she was fired out of the blue from her job at Chipotle in 2017 because, she claims her boss told her, she wasn’t “smiling enough.”
“I did my job well and always arrived early for my shift,” she said Thursday. “I thought that it could be a stable job with an income that I could support my family with. There were not even customers in the store at the time.”
Walker was speaking out in support of a package of bills aimed at protecting fast-food workers from being unfairly fired.
One bill from Council members Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) and Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) would bar employers from firing employees for any reason other than misconduct or failure to do the job. It also defines a reduction in hours of 15% or more as equivalent to being fired.
Another bill from the duo would require fast-food joints to take seniority into account when deciding who to fire if layoffs are necessary due to economic woes.
“For far too long, fast food workers have been the victims of unfair reduction of hours or arbitrary termination,” Adams said in a statement. “In New York City, we must stand up and address these injustices in an effort to protect workers in this industry.”
Lander said the legislation continues the struggle that begins with raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“Fast food workers have been on the front lines of transforming low-wage, unstable jobs into dignified work that people can rely on,” he said in a statement. “Ending unfair firings is the next frontier.
“Too many fast-food workers have been fired without a just cause, without a warning, without even any notice,” he added. “And if you can be fired simply on the whim of an angry boss or a disgruntled customer’s complaint, then you’re far more vulnerable to harassment or abuse.”
The lawmakers cited a 2019 study that found 65% of fired fast food workers in the Big Apple had lost their job without being given a reason. The study from the Center for Popular Democracy and the National Employment Law Project also found 62% of respondents who lost a fast-food job or had their hours cut experienced significant financial hardship.
Chipotle did not immediately answer a request for comment about Walker’s claim.
