By WMBD TV
NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — The owner of Pop-Up Chicken Shop is responding after a holiday pay dispute and the firing of several employees sparked backlash online over the weekend.
Owner Aaron Francis said the situation began on the morning of July 4, when he was told several employees scheduled to work that day had called off.
“From my perspective, I got a text message at 8 a.m. on July Fourth from my front-of-house manager telling me that I had five people call off abruptly that morning,” Francis said.
Francis later clarified that six employees were let go. He said all six were scheduled to work that day and were fired after calling off the morning of the holiday.
“They pretty much said, ‘We’re not coming in to work unless you pay us time-and-a-half,’ the morning of the Fourth of July,” Francis said.
The dispute centers around holiday pay language in the company’s employee handbook. Francis confirmed the handbook did include language saying time-and-a-half pay would be honored on holidays, but said that language was included by mistake when the handbook was created several years ago.
“Ten days before the Fourth of July, we made an announcement saying that we had made a mistake in our handbook,” Francis said. “In our handbook, it did say time-and-a-half pay is honored here. Me and my general manager have already made our public statements saying it’s literally our mistake.”
Francis said the handbook was created about four years ago by him and his general manager. He said parts of the handbook were copied and pasted, and the holiday pay language should not have been included.
“A lot of it was copied and pasted,” Francis said. “So we definitely made the mistake.”
Francis said the business amended the handbook before the holiday and told employees they would not receive time-and-a-half for working on July 4. He said Illinois law does not require private employers to pay time-and-a-half for holidays.
According to Francis, employees were notified through the company’s scheduling app and were also reminded during pre-shift meetings in the days leading up to the holiday.
“It was a company statement released on our company application that everyone’s a part of for scheduling and everything,” Francis said.
Francis also said employees were reminded during front-of-house pre-shift meetings starting the Saturday before the holiday.
“From the 27th up until the Fourth of July, every front-of-house team member was told in their morning pre-shift meeting that we’re not paying time-and-a-half,” Francis said.
During the interview, WMBD asked Francis if he could provide a screenshot or proof of the notice he said went out before July 4, explaining that employees would not receive time-and-a-half. Francis said he would provide it. As of publication, WMBD has not yet received that screenshot or proof of the notice.
Francis said he understands why employees may have been upset by the handbook language, but said businesses are allowed to make changes to company policies.
“I see both sides of them,” Francis said. “But also as a business, and any other business in town, businesses make amendments to company policies all the time.”
Francis said he believes the situation could have been handled differently if employees had raised their concerns before the holiday.
“The biggest thing is that they had a full seven days to reach out to me or my general manager if they had any issues,” Francis said. “There would have been 100% compromise between me and my employees.”
Francis said employees did not bring the issue to him or his general manager before calling off. He said he later learned from current employees that there had been a group chat discussing a boycott.
“They all got together and made an issue of it amongst themselves, but not a single one of them reached out to me or my general manager,” Francis said.
Francis said the employees were not fired for questioning the holiday pay decision, but for calling off the morning they were scheduled to work.
“They only got fired because they called off that morning,” Francis said.
The dispute spread quickly online after former employees and community members criticized the business, including Francis’ public comments in response to the controversy.
In one online comment, Francis referenced potential legal action from employees. When asked if he regretted that comment, Francis said he did.
“There’s definitely things that I regret saying because I’m an emotional person,” Francis said. “We’re all human beings. We all make mistakes. There are things that I’ve said that I definitely should have handled way more professionally.”
Francis said he felt betrayed by employees he said he had supported for years, but acknowledged his public response may have made the situation worse.
“I was definitely emotional at the time because I was betrayed by people that I actually care and love and I have supported for almost three and a half years,” Francis said. “So yes, I definitely in the time felt like I got blackmailed and I said some things that I shouldn’t.”
Francis said his apology online was directed toward the former employees who were fired, saying he was sorry he was not aware of grievances they had before the situation escalated.
“I’m honestly apologizing because, come to find out, I haven’t been around much for day-to-day operations,” Francis said. “I see that a lot of employees that I cared about had a lot of grievances going on, and I had no idea about it.”
Francis said he has been dealing with severe arthritis and has not been as involved in daily operations.
“I failed you because if I had known you had grievances, they all know this, and if I had known there were grievances, I would have fixed them,” Francis said.
Francis denied claims that he had stolen tips or withheld money from employees, calling those allegations false.
“There’s a lot of bad things being said to me about how I’ve stolen money from them; I’m not paying out tips,” Francis said. “Those are all slander and defamation.”
Francis said he takes accountability for how the situation unfolded publicly, especially as a business owner.
“I take full accountability,” Francis said. “I understand that I am also a business owner and I do have to hold myself a little bit higher on my social media posts.”
Francis said the employee handbook has since been updated to clarify the company’s holiday pay policy moving forward.
“There already is an updated handbook,” Francis said. “This is a crazy mistake that we did our due diligence as a company and fixed it.”
Francis said he is not asking customers to support the business if they do not want to, but asked people not to attack current employees.
“I’m not here to beg anyone for business,” Francis said. “If they would like to come here and receive great food, because at the end of the day we have nothing but great food here, they can do that. They can also pick and choose not to come here.”
He added that criticism should be directed at him, not the employees still working at the restaurant.
“One thing I don’t really like is people personally attacking anyone,” Francis said. “Just bring it on me. I’ll take the heat because I am the owner.”
Francis said he believes the situation could have been avoided with better communication.
“This could have been 100% avoidable,” Francis said. “All it took was communication. Listen, it’s not just on their side. It’s on our side. Communication could have been better on both sides for this whole thing.”
WMBD also reached out to one of the employees fired over the weekend. That former employee said that after speaking with the other former workers, they do not wish to go on camera and have no comment at this time.
Check out the full interview with Francis here:
