Burger King

Last edited by crocodyl on April 23, 2008 - 9:56am

Company Snapshot:

Burger King, based in Miami, Florida, USA, is the world's second largest hamburger chain (behind McDonald's). It has restaurants in about 65 countries. Started in 1954, Burger King is owned in part by the investment firms TPG Capital, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs, each owning about 25% of the company.

Ownership status:

Publicly traded

Number of employees worldwide:

37,000

Chief executive officer:

John W. Chidsey

Website:

http://www.burgerking.com/

Corporate accountability

Labor:

Burger King has rejected working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve farm worker wages and conditions in southwest Florida. These workers earn poverty wages, have no right to overtime pay even when they work 60 to 70 hour a week, and have no right to organize. McDonald's and Taco Bell have both worked with CIW to increase workers rights and pay. CIW is now urging Burger King to do the same (see related Campaign item).

Environment and product safety:

In August 2005 California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed suit against nine producers of potato chips and french fries concerning toxic contents in their popular foods. Lockyer is seeking a court order requiring the companies to warn consumers that some of their food products are made with acrylamide, a chemical identified by the state as a human carcinogen. Plaintiffs in the case include McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Frito Lay, H.J. Heinz, Proctor & Gamble and Wendy's. In April 2007, KFC agreed to display the warning and pay $341,000 in civil penalties. Burger King is still in negotations with the Attorney General.

In March 2005 Burger King agreed to pay civil penalties of $170,000, plus $35,000 in costs, to settle a lawsuit over an abandoned store in Sacramento County California. The suit alleged that the fast-food company illegally maintained the site of an abandoned drive-in and allowed it to become a blighted property. According to the suit Burger King destroyed the building in 2004 but left the site open and accessible and filled with solid waste and hazardous materials.

In February 2005 Burger King agreed to pay part of a $4 million settlement in a case where a former employee was burned severely when a grease filter exploded at a Burger King restaurant in West Seneca, NY. The woman, who now is 24, suffered burns, five surgeries and permanent scars after a grease machine exploded in 1997, spraying her with 350 degree oil According to her attorney the grease filter was defective, and the restaurant lacked proper training and operating procedures for the device, which exploded after an aerosol canister fell into the machine.

Human rights:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit on behalf of about 511 current and former workers at about half of the 351 Burger Kings run by franchisee Carrols Corp. This is the biggest sexual harassment suit ever filed by the agency. Most of the alleged victims are girls or women. According to the suit female employees tell of managers or co-workers hugging and kissing them or fondling their breasts or buttocks. Some supervisors made suggestive or vulgar comments to female workers; others pressured them to have sex or go out on dates, according to court records. At least one co-worker allegedly exposed himself to a female employee. Sometimes, Carrols' management fired or suspended offenders. In other cases, victims' complaints to managers resulted in little or nothing being done, according to court records. A federal judge ruled against plaintiffs in the case, however the EEOC issued a statement saying it felt the court was incorrect in its decision.

In February 2005 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Burger King on behalf of a 16 year-old former employee who claimed she was fired after refusing the store manager's repeated requests for sex. According to the lawsuit, the teenager started working at a Milwaukee Burger King in January 2003 and refused the store manager's requests for sex. In September 2003, she was fired after making plans to complain about the harassment to some of the company's managers who were scheduled to visit the restaurant, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit seeks a court order reinstating Merriweather to her job, back pay and compensatory and punitive damages up to $300,000, said Jean Kamp, an EEOC attorney. The manager who fired Merriweather is in his mid-30s and still works at the restaurant, Kamp said.

In December 2004 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a $400,000 settlement of a sexual harassment lawsuit against a Burger King franchise in St. Louis County. The EEOC charged that seven young women had been subjected to repeated groping, vulgar sexual comments and demands for sex. When the company didn't resolve their complaints, the women turned to the EEOC. A consent decree requires franchise owners to pay damages and fees and not to rehire Nathan Kraus, the store manager accused of the sexual harassment. Burger King also must conduct sexual harassment training for management, distribute a revised sexual harassment policy and more prominently post in their restaurants a hot line number for reporting harassment.