QSR Employees to Get Sensitivity Training

Employees from 270 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchise operations will receive training after incident at a Mississippi KFC.

August 13, 2018

WOODSTOCK, New Brunswick, Canada – Canada-based Franchise Management Inc. (FMI), which operates 270 KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations, will provide employee sensitivity training to workers following a May incident at a Jackson, Mississippi-area KFC in which a deaf woman felt she was being mocked while trying to order food, according to U.S. News.

Disability Rights Mississippi, a nonprofit corporation that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities, said it has reached an agreement on behalf of Bobbie Cole, of Byram, Mississippi. Cole, who is deaf but can read lips, said she was made fun of by KFC employees while trying to order food at a drive-thru.

As reported in NACS Daily, Starbucks recently closed 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores to provide racial tolerance training for almost 175,000 employees. The training was conducted after police were called on two black men who did not make a purchase.

Tyler Langdon, a spokesperson for FMI, said the company has reviewed the restaurant's surveillance video of the KFC incident involving Cole, and that it appears there was a misunderstanding. He didn't provide details but added that the employees working at the drive-thru at the time were minors. No schedule for the training sessions has been announced.

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