Papa John’s remains open for business despite sanitation requirements
A Papa John’s employee of a Colorado Springs location lost his job after refusing to work without running water required for sanitation protocols for washing hands and equipment. The unnamed former employee was filmed by his sister named Jade (on TikTok @mommarhodey) and the video was posted on the platform gaining a lot of media attention for Papa John’s.
Viewers called out Papa John’s describing this move as “illegal”, demanding a lawsuit against the company. Comments continued to flood the platform blaming managers as “irresponsible” both for sanitary and unacceptable working conditions. https://t.co/WQ26MeKngS
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Jade captioned the footage stating, “Brother was fired due to not wanting to work while unable to wash,” and her brother continues to explain the reasoning behind the poor working conditions. The unnamed former Papa John’s employee states, “It’s 0 degrees outside. Our water hasn’t been working all day. Literally, haven’t been able to wash my hands while making pizza. So I clocked out. … I don’t want to be like making other people’s food without being sanitary.”
The video shows evidence of the restaurant management attempting to find a solution to the problem but is only provided a small heating device that claims to help unfreeze the pipes but the running water remained off all day. Despite not having any running water, the Papa John’s location remained open for business without notifying customers of their issue and allowing employees to prepare food without the proper sanitation measures.
The Papa John’s location featured in the video also features other problems with the resturant including no heating despite the freezing temperatures outside. Shortly after the video was posted, Papa John’s faced a lot of social media backlash with negative comments calling the working conditions “illegal” and the management is irresponsible for the unsanitary working conditions, especially during a global pandemic.
@mommarhodey
This video gained so much attention on social media, Papa John’s finally made a statement regarding the resturant location in question. A Papa John’s representative disclosed, “Due to the cold weather, the water line froze. The restaurant was immediately closed in order to have repairs made.”
According to the management at the Papa John’s location in question clarified that the unnamed employee wasn’t fired for his actions but rather quit as he left while on duty, placing the blame on the unnamed employee for losing his job. The unnamed employee’s sister, Jade, created follow-up videos revealing that she called the public health department (PHD) to report Papa John’s and was told the PHD would shut down the location until the problems were fixed.
Despite the claims of the PHD, Jade reports that the location remains open with none of the needed equipment fixed. Jade also discovered a similar video recorded by one of her brother’s co-workers from the Coral Springs location. The co-worker recorded the video before Jade’s brother but documented a similar issue with no running water. It seems the siblings are looking to take legal action but have yet to find counsel due to the high-cost.