Frontier Enterprises, which owns Jim’s and other restaurants, terminated hundreds of employees by postcard on March 31. Since then, some of those employees have complained about surprise pay cuts and bounced checks.
The company confirmed that 22 checks were bounced, and that managers received a 15% pay cut because of a “computer glitch.”
Chris Tippery, a cook, was on workers’ compensation for an injury before the coronavirus crisis began.
“I guarantee the original owner is flipping in his grave right now because he was about family,” he said. “He was about it, and this is not.”
He's referring to G. “Jim” Hasslocher, the company founder who died in 2015.
Gretchen Stai was an assistant general manager at Jim’s. She said she's concerned with the culture of dishonesty at the company. And she agrees that G. “Jim” Hasslocher always treated his employees well.
Stai said she was told by upper management in March to put staff on paid vacation time if they had available vacation days. Frontier told TPR no one was authorized to take paid time off.
She also said the company promised employees that insurance premiums would not be deducted from their pay, but Frontier said it has continued to deduct premiums at the regular rate.
"I will never patronize a Frontier Enterprises establishment again,” she said. “That's how strongly I feel about this. And Jim’s has been a part of my life always."
Hasslocher's son — Jimmy, the current Frontier Enterprises CEO — told TPR in a written statement that he encourages concerned employees to call human resources. The company said it hopes to bring back employees at a later date. It said problems with paychecks and salaries were computer glitches and that managers will be reimbursed.
Dominic Anthony Walsh can be reached at Dominic@TPR.org and on Twitter at @_DominicAnthony.
