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KFC employee axed for fighting against rotten chicken

On Behalf of | May 7, 2012 | Business & Commercial Litigation |

An employment dispute at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant location in Oregon has sprouted civil litigation between a former manager and the store. The man, who used to serve as a manager at the restaurant’s location, said that the owner fired him when he stood his ground and contested the fact the restaurant was serving customers rotten food.

The lawsuit centers on the fact that the owner would order his employees to serve chicken, even after it has passed its prime.

The restaurants receive chicken shipments, and the poultry is not frozen, as is the case with many other restaurants. For this reason, employees must pay careful attention to the expiration date. The shipping materials also provide information on when the birds were killed. Normally, employees at KFC locations are not to serve any chicken that remains 12 days after the day they were killed.

Despite this regular policy, the owner forced his employees to serve the chicken. According to the former manager, expired chicken would smell, was discolored and the blood inside and outside the chicken would even start to coagulate.

When the former manager spotted some chicken that appeared to take on a green color, he brought it to the owner’s attention, who told him to cook the chicken and serve it to customers anyway. The former manager argued that the owner would almost routinely tell him to serve expired produce.

The former manager and owner clearly did not see eye-to-eye on the matter. Finally, the owner fired the manager, claiming that his arguing with leadership was dampening the team work-oriented setting. One other manager left the job because of the unsanitary practices as well.

While this is the jilted manager’s account, both will have their day in court to argue their case if they would like to. However, if the facts prove to be true, this would be a classic case of wrongful termination and the former manager would be entitled to damages.

Source: The Huffington Post, “KFC rotten chicken lawsuit: Former manager says he was forced to serve green, expired chicken,” April 18, 2012

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