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Pizza Hut franchises lay off more than 1,200 California delivery drivers

December 26, 2023

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

In the lead-up to California implementing a $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers, two Pizza Hut franchises in the Golden State are laying off more than 1,200 delivery drivers. [Business Insider]

Starting in April, Assembly Bill 1228 will raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers in California to $20 an hour. The law affects 557,000 fast-food workers at 30,000 restaurants statewide. 

Ahead of AB 1228 taking effect, a pair of Pizza Hut operators are eliminating their in-house delivery services at hundreds of stores, resulting in a combined total of more than 1,200 driver layoffs, according to federal employment notices. The layoffs, effective throughout February, impact drivers across California, including in the Sacramento, Palm Springs and Los Angeles areas.

Employers are required to give notice of mass layoffs or plant closures, in accordance with The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Pizza Hut franchise PacPizza, LLC filed a federal WARN Act notice, as did its affiliates, which include Southern PacPizza LLC, CalPac Pizza LLC and Pac Partners LLC.

Another Pizza Hut franchise, Southern California Pizza Co., and its affiliates are also eliminating their in-house delivery services. They are laying off about 841 drivers, according to a Dec. 1 WARN Act notice. Southern California Pizza Co. operates dozens of restaurants in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura and San Bernardino counties.

One driver being laid off said he was offered $400 severance pay if he kept working until his Feb. 5 layoff date. He had been a driver for nine years, he said.

Following the driver layoffs, customers will need to use third-party delivery apps in order to get Pizza Hut food delivered from the impacted restaurants. Most Pizza Hut locations in California work with delivery apps, such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub.


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The minimum wage should be “0”


12

Starting with government employees…….


9

Customers will be greeted by more kiosks, and automation to replace food preparers will become more prevalent. They can work full time, and don’t require mandatory sick or extra pay for holidays. There will be no healthcare or payroll tax expenses, resulting in savings for business owners. Entry level employment will be increasingly more difficult to obtain.


29

Obviously, I am in the minority on this site, but I still need to point out that it is the people who are doing the work who should be making the money, not a bunch of “shareholders”, enticed by the high rate of return achieved by cheapening the product and screwing said workers.


Yes, it would be great if this kind of job were only being held by those who are young, have little responsibilities and live with their parents. However, the same people holding the opinion that these jobs should be for those people alone, are also the ones who don’t want anyone to be getting a “hand out” if they can’t get more appropriate work, a roof over their head or even a decent meal. And how about the students dealing with crushing expenses that didn’t exist decades ago?


I’m fed up with all the concern for these corporate greed heads who are destroying our once comfortable way of life with their desire to cheapen everything whilst raising what they are extracting from us for it. Made in America was once said with extreme pride and our goods reflected that. People who did a service were properly compensated. We need to get back to that.


-35

Then vote for RFK


1

This is a high school student’s pocket money job, not a career path. what a mistake to mandate a minimum wage here on this. Maybe if parents allowed their kids to get jobs instead of leaving these low wage jobs for migrants, we’d not be in this mess.


44

Wonder if the delivery app drivers are mandated by the state to be paid $20 per hour.


12

Basically no because they are independent contractors and not employees.


8

A Doordash driver makes more than that. The national average is $15 and Cali drivers usually make about double that much.


-17

Not sure I believe that but regardless the pending influx of said driver is about to cut those wages, and job reliability, way down.


4

Go get jobs in construction!


If I worked somewhere for 9 years and made under $20 an hour, and was only offered a $400 severance, I’d probably take a look in the mirror…


I don’t feel bad for employee or employer in this situation. One is a fool who allowed themself to fall behind the corporate death machine they chose to work for. And Pizza Hut is a corporate death machine that literally brings no benefit to any community it is apart of. Obesity, low wages, low quality food… the sole purpose of corporate franchises is to extract the most profits out of a community while keeping compensation low.


Go become a tradesman, make $30-$50 an hour all day long with healthier and less degrading work. There’s a tradesman shortage.


41

That’s an antiquated view of the current situation in the construction industry… Speaking fluent English, wanting a living wage that’s on paper, and decent working conditions is out of place and far from the norm. Not so ideal.


-25

absolutely the truth coming from that industry not too long ago. Construction; not electricians or plumbers, is the sketchiest underpaid job market, and if anyone says construction brings jobs to locals, that’s BS. and the pay is pathetic for the work endured.


-11

Maybe if the Government lowered taxes for these businesses they wouldn’t have to lay off the workers.


6

Once again, Newsom is absolutely oblivious to ECONOMIC theory. All he wants out of this is that he can say “I raised the pay of the entry level employee”.

Now they can pay $15 for a whopper combo and complain that they are still not making enough money because everything is so expensive. Guess what, there is no going back on the minimum wage. We will continually be chasing our tails and never catching it.

Until people start studying/understanding what is happening in this country, we will watch our demise as people keep reciting the soundbytes on the way down.


40