Red Lobster is facing the wrath of its former employees on social media after laying them off earlier this week as a result of it closing over 50 of its stores in the U.S.
Many of the restaurant’s former workers are claiming that they were blindsided by the store closures and were given little to no notice of the decision.
“I worked at a Red Lobster location for about a year now. Earlier today I drove to work to preform my usual serving shift only to discover a big padlock and a sign on the door reading ‘This location is closed, we look forward to serving you at our other locations.’ They didn’t even tell me?!?” wrote one former Red Lobster employee in a May 14 Reddit post. ‘
Related: Restaurant chain closes dozens of locations as bankruptcy looms
The employee claimed that the store’s general manager didn’t even know that the location was closing.
“I was told they’d transfer me to a different location that’s a 45 minute drive from my original one, only to hear a hour later that this one was closed too,” wrote the employee in the post. “Lol. This surely has to be against all sort of workers right.”
In a separate Reddit post, another former Red Lobster worker shared a screenshot of a message on their employee scheduling app that informed them that the restaurant they worked at was closed.
Related: Employees of bankrupt retailer forced to kick customers out of store
“We didn’t even get an email, we checked our scheduling app and it just said we were closed and a number to call for benefits,” wrote the former employee.
Red Lobster shut down 52 locations across the nation on May 14, leaving around 2,600 to 3,900 employees without jobs. The move from the famous restaurant chain comes after it was revealed that it is allegedly considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to help manage debts that have been exacerbated by difficult leases and high labor costs, as well as other issues, according to Bloomberg. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to continue operating while they reorganize their finances under court supervision.
This is not the first time that a retailer has left employees in the dark about its plans to shut down its stores due to a looming bankruptcy. Last month, coffee chain Foxtrot closed 33 of its stores after its parent company, Outfox Hospitality, announced plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The news of the closings went viral after the coffee chain’s employees took to social media to reveal that they found out that their stores were shutting down (and they were being laid off) within a matter of a few hours, while they were on the clock. As a result, some employees were forced to kick customers out of the stores as they were instructed to shut down mid-day.
The move from Foxtrot has earned itself a class-action lawsuit from former employees who accuse the company of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which is a labor law that requires a company to give at least a 60 days written notice of planned closings and mass layoffs.
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