KFC workers hit by chicken crisis ‘must still get paid’

KFC staff whose branches have been forced to close must still be compensated, union leaders have warned.

Stores have been shut since the weekend after they ran out of chicken following the failure of a new computer ordering system.

Many workers are on short term or zero hours contracts, meaning they have lost shifts and – potentially – pay.

KFC says it will pay staff it employs directly based on average working patterns. However, this does not cover more than 19,000 staff at the 780 KFCs run by franchisees across the UK and Ireland.

The majority will offer some form of payment to cover lost shifts – but staff at 46 KFC branches have not been told they will be paid. Those at 26 others were told to treat the break as paid holiday. One employee at a branch in Devon said this week that they had already lost over 30 hours’ wages.

The crisis follows KFC’s decision to switch delivery companies from Bidvest Logistics to DHL.

A computer system failure meant deliveries from its warehouse in Rugby were not fulfilled.

It has also emerged that DHL failed to register the warehouse as a cold storage and distribution centre before it took over the contract last week. Rugby borough council decided not to shut it down as it was ‘not in the public interest’.

The GMB union is demanding pay for all KFC staff, whether employed directly or not. Mick Rix, its national officer, said: ‘For a multi-billion pound global giant to treat workers at the sharp end like dirt because of their foul-up is a disgrace.’

KFC said it would try to protect staff on zero hours contracts, but warned that disruption would continue through the week. The number of closed branches fell from around 600 to 272 yesterday.