Employee nightmare of the week: ‘Eat here and you’ll get sick.’
Picture this: Restaurant employees try to hurt their employer by telling customers the food will make them sick. The establishment fires the staffers for lying and trying to drive away business. But a federal court decides employees have a right to invent a safety risk and spread unfounded rumors, and are entitled to their jobs.
That was the decision handed down this week by the U.S. Court of Appeals in a 6-year-old case involving a Jimmy John’s franchisee whose employees had tried unsuccessfully to unionize. After the staff voted not to join the International Workers of the World in 2010, flyers were posted in and around units run by MikLin Enterprises. The materials warned customers that a Jimmy John’s sandwich could make them ill because the franchisee didn’t provide paid sick leave to its employees. Staffers with contagious diseases had no choice but to report to work so they wouldn’t lose pay, the flyers asserted.
Six employees were fired for participating in the campaign. But Appeals Court Judges Jane Kelly and Kermit Bye agreed with a National Labor Relations Board ruling that exaggerated rhetoric is a common tool in unionization and hence was protected by law. Previous NLRB rulings have determined that even false assertions by employees are protected.