Dunkin Donuts Employee Policies
Rubie Mccloughan
This rule made us laugh. Something about seeing "SOCKS: Must be worn at all times," in the employee handbook just feels hilarious and bizarre. The coffee and donut chain cites their "health and sanitation policies" as the reason for this decree, which we could see a case being made for. One quick Google search of "is wearing socks more sanitary than not?" turns up pages worth of articles about how socks absorb moisture, should probably be changed every day, and how not wearing them could indeed be bad for your health. Didn't know socks were such a hot topic in the health arena? You're not alone.
Fast food workers already have it hard enough without someone taking away tips: Studies show that 40 percent live in poverty, while another report reveals that nearly 52 percent are dependent upon public assistance just to get by. Furthermore, these Dunkin' Donuts locations aren't the first restaurants to enforce a no-tipping policy. Other restaurants that instituted similar policies have simultaneously increased their employees' wages. Some restaurants also donate the tips to charity instead of pocketing the cash.
Under the law, most workers in Massachusetts have the right to earn and use up to 40 hours of sick time per year. Employers are required under the law to post a "notice of employee rights" in their workplace and include sick time policies in any employee handbook or manual.
Many people may not know this but Dunkin' Donuts disposes all of their leftover bagels, muffins, donuts, and any other baked goods that were not sold, at the end of each day. And on top of this, employees that work there are also not allowed to take any of their leftovers home with them after closing.
I remember when I was about 13 years old, my mom and I walked into a Dunkin' Donuts shop to order some donuts and coffee. It was almost closing time, and as my mom was placing her order, one of the employees asked her if she wanted anything else because they were about to close, and told her that they were going to throw away all of their unsold goods that night, and would receive newly baked ones in the morning the next day. Even at a young age I was in disbelief and was shocked to know that this occurred within such a popular and successful restaurant chain. I thought that it was such a waste for them to throw away perfectly good food, especially when there are so many people in the community who are struggling with hunger, and who could greatly benefit from it. I rarely go to Dunkin Donuts, but last week I went to one, and it just happened to be a few minutes before their closing time, when an employee asked me if I wanted anything else with my order, because they were about to close. This reminded me of that time as a kid when I realized that they were simply discarding all of their leftover baked goods at the end of the day. Now that I have gotten older, I feel that I have the power to try and convince Dunkin' Donuts to create a new policy, or to start a new program that would enable them to donate their unsold goods that they have at the end of the day, to local charities, food banks, and homeless organizations that are in need of food on a daily basis. There are currently more than 11,300 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants worldwide. This means that if for example, 100 leftover baked goods were thrown away at each Dunkin' Donuts shop every night, that would result in 1,130,000 baked goods being discarded on a daily basis! This is a lot of food that is being wasted when it could be given to a needy person who visits one of these charitable organizations for assistance, and who might not know where their next meal could come from. I believe that it is wrong to unnecessarily throw away these unsold goods while there are so many people in our communities that are going hungry across the nation. According to Feeding America, there is an estimated 70 billion pounds of food waste in America each year, and an astounding 42 million people who face hunger in the U.S. today, including nearly 13 million children, and more than 5 million seniors. According to endhomelessness.org, in January of 2015, it was estimated that 564,708 people were homeless on a given night in the United States. And about 15 percent of the homeless population (83,170 people), were considered chronically homeless. Therefore, this amount of discarded food could greatly benefit a large portion of these individuals.
I'm sure that there are other people and restaurants that know that Dunkin' Donuts does this, and that there must be others that must feel the same way I do, so I did some research and found out that Panera Bread, which is another well known restaurant, currently has a program called "The Day-End Dough-Nation program", which allows their bakery-cafes to package unsold bread and baked goods at the end of each day, to then donate to local hunger relief and charitable organizations. I think that this is a great program because it allows other organizations in need to apply to their program by filling out a simple application to then become partnered with them to be able receive these baked goods to distribute to others in need. Another well known restaurant I found that donates its unsold goods, is Starbucks, who has donated unsold pastries to the Food Donation Connection since 2010, and who earlier this year announced FoodShare, which is a program to donate ready-to-eat meals to food banks from its 7,600 company-operated stores in the United States. Starbucks has also recently established a partnership with Feeding America, who is the largest domestic hunger-relief and food-rescue nonprofit in the U.S., to redistribute their unsold food. Through this process, a refrigerated van will pick up their unsold food from Starbucks stores each day and deliver it to the Feeding America network. I believe that every restaurant that serves baked goods or any kind of food, should try to adopt a type of program like this. By doing so, it would greatly decrease the amount of people who continue to go hungry around the world, reduce the amount of food waste in the U.S., and serve needy people and families in our communities. The United States is such a developed country as compared to other countries, but unfortunately there are still so many people and children who are starving everyday, so I don't believe that any restaurant should be wasting good food by throwing it away when it could be used to feed someone in need. Dunkin' Donuts claims to be the world's leading baked goods and coffee chain, but I believe that giving back to the community to help those in need, would make them an even better company, customers will ultimately have a better view about the overall company and would be proud to be a customer of theirs. Dunkin' Donuts would be making a huge statement by showing that they truly care about their community by doing this simple contribution and could potentially inspire other restaurants to do the same in the near future as well!
Question, my security guard for my company has a 3rd shift employee who likes to switch the SSID to the dunkin donuts guest wifi so they can use internet out there. Where as normally they only have network access and nothing outside.
Sarah Voss, a first-year in exploration and Starbucks employee, said as a student who has a college schedule to work around, she finds it increasingly difficult to keep her job with the new policies.
Benji Galela, a fourth-year in film studies and Starbucks employee, said he wanted to unionize and protest because the new policies do not allow him to focus more on his future as a graduating student.
But even then, employers who adopt these policies should be sensitive to the needs of staff members, Studenka said. "This is all part of respecting diversity in the workplace," he explained; "It should be raised in any diversity training, especially with managers so that they avoid unknowingly overstepping here, for example, telling an employee on break in the kitchen that he must speak English."
California has no blanket policy against English-only rules, but defines more narrowly when they can be applied. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, businesses with five or more employees must limit the use of language restriction policies unless they can show an "overriding and legitimate business purpose that makes language restriction necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the business." The restriction also must "effectively fulfill the business purpose it is supposed to serve" and there can be no alternative practice that would accomplish the same business purpose with a lesser discriminatory impact. Employers must notify staff when the policy must be followed, as well as consequences for failure to comply.
On April 23, 1992, Turnway entered into a franchise agreement with DD to operate a donut store at 59 Kissena Boulevard in Queens, New York.[2] Turnway renovated the premises, which had previously housed a furniture store, to facilitate the production and sale of donuts. Between 1992 and 1994, the donut store was robbed at least three times. At some point prior to the incident involving Ms. Wu, Jen Chuan Yin, the then-manager of the store, and Sam Yuan, part owner of the store, arranged for the installation of an alarm system and a plexiglass partition with a locked door between the employee area and the customer area. Turnway also installed in the employee area a phone that did not require money to place a "911" call and a video security camera. At some later point, Turnway removed the customer restroom because the employees found it difficult to keep the restroom clean. According to Mr. Yin, Mr. Yuan, and other Turnway employees involved in making these decisions, Turnway did not seek prior approval from DD for these alterations.
This Employee Handbook represents a compilation and condensation of governing language with respect to employee benefits, and College policies, procedures, guidelines and services. It is intended for general information purposes only. Administrative actions and policy determinations should be premised upon primary documents and consultations which are available upon request.
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