Following strike, Freddy’s workers to be paid sick leave if they contract COVID-19

Employees at Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers who test positive for COVID-19 will now receive 10 days of paid sick leave, following a strike by a dozen workers at the restaurant’s west Durham location, a company spokesperson said.

The strike began after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, The News & Observer reported Oct. 21. Employees asked for the restaurant to pay them for time off to quarantine and to get COVID-19 tests, but the requests were denied.

But following the positive COVID-19 case in October, HCI Hospitality, the franchisee that owns the west Durham Freddy’s location, changed its policy to offer the paid leave, said Jill Tinsley, Freddy’s public relations manager. The restaurant also will offer all employees one paid day off to get tested for COVID-19, Tinsley said.

The policy change was announced to workers two days after The N&O’s story, workers told The N&O.

The October strike came after workers at the restaurant had been exposed to COVID-19 for the second time since the pandemic began. The first time was in August, when an employee tested positive. Workers said 12 of them were asked to quarantine for either two weeks or until they got a negative coronavirus test. The restaurant would not pay them for any time off.

The workers’ experience demonstrates the shortcomings of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, The News & Observer has reported. The act, passed in March, requires that employers give workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they need to recover or quarantine from COVID-19. But it exempts companies with more than 500 employees.

That meant that HCI Hospitality, who also owns handful of other Freddy’s restaurants between the Triangle and Charlotte, wasn’t required to provide paid sick leave.

The new policy is in effect in the 33 locations owned by HCI Hospitality, with 12 of those locations in North Carolina.

The workers who went on strike say the policy change is a win, but that it’s just a small piece of the changes they demanded.

“Freddy’s saw we weren’t backing down about getting paid for the time we had to quarantine,” said Jamila Allen, one of the workers who went on strike, in a text message to The N&O. “They realized they had to give us something.”

She said workers still deserve to be paid for the time they’ve already spent in quarantine, Allen wrote.

“We had to stay home to protect ourselves and our families,” Allen wrote. “Freddy’s can definitely afford to pay us for that time.”

Ieisha Franceis, another worker, said she feels good that the employees’ actions prompted the policy change. But she said workers still want the company to meet their other demands, including hazard pay, she wrote in a text message to The N&O.

“We haven’t forgotten about that, either,” Franceis wrote. “If they fail us again, then we will strike again and again until we get what we deserve. So the fight is not over at all.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 6:45 AM.