OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
1:15 PM – Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Several Pizza Hut franchises in California are laying off delivery drivers ahead of the state’s new $20 minimum wage increase for fast-food employees. It is set to take effect in 2024.
Approximately 1,200 California Pizza Hut delivery drivers are set to be laid off after the state recently presented a new $20 minimum wage for all fast food employees next year.
Pizza Hut franchise operators announced that they are going to get rid of all of their delivery drivers in 2024 and depend purely on third-party platforms like DoorDash and UberEats instead.
The decision seems to have been sparked by Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-Calif.) recent legislation that will mandate all fast-food chains with 60 or more locations around the United States to pay their workers $20 per hour.
The $20 minimum wage for all fast-food employees will go into effect in April 2024. The rise in minimum wage was placed as a way to counteract the growing cost of living for Californians.
In order to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, a number of Pizza Hut operators filed notices announcing the termination of their delivery services. The notice was filed with California’s Employment Development Department.
“PacPizza, LLC, operating as Pizza Hut, has made a business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery driver positions,” a federal WARN Act notice filed by Pizza Hut with the Golden State’s Employment Development Department said.
The WARN Act mandates employers to provide notice of large layoffs of plant closures.
The layoffs, which are set to go into effect in February 2024, are going to impact delivery drivers at Pizza Hut locations in Sacramento, Palm Springs, Orange, Los Angeles, and additional regions throughout California.
Additionally, the Southern California Pizza Company, which is a second Pizza Hut franchise, is also terminating its in-house delivery assistance and laying off 841 drivers, according to a WARN Act notice filed from December 1st. As a result, 1,200 delivery drivers will be impacted in total.
Pizza Hut, which is owned by the Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands, explained to the press that its “franchisees independently own and operate their restaurants in accordance with local market dynamics and comply with all federal, state, and local regulations while continuing to provide quality service and food to our customers via carryout and delivery.”
The new fast-food employee minimum wage law is going to affect about 557,000 workers at 30,000 fast-food establishments in California.
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