It's kase weeks at burger-king, also in the branch in himmelkron. But the employees are currently pissed off about something else entirely: a report on RTL with investigative journalist gunter wallraff. He had smuggled in a reporter incognito in a west german restaurant of the chain. What he had to offer was impressively unappetizing: germy burgers, ingredients that remained unrefrigerated for hours. In addition work contracts, which carry exploitative zuge.
When talking to BR, none of the employees in himmelkron wants to come out of hiding at first. Only when we pledged anonymity did one of the employees agree to pay. "The shown conditions are blatant. But I can say for our branch: that certainly doesn't happen here."
The worst scene for the employee was the one in the TV report, when an employee was shown opening a can of jalapenos with a knife for lack of a can opener. "I couldn't look", says the himmelkroner burger-king employee. "Of course we have can openers here, we also have a bobbin winding machine and hot water for cleaning the cake machines." all that is missing in the west german branch according to the RTL report. "It also doesn't happen here that ingredients such as cucumbers or tomatoes are prepared in the morning and then lie around for hours without being cooled. We are well organized and have enough employees to provide freshly prepared and safe food to the customers."
Since 2001, she herself has been part of a team that currently has 20 employees – only one of whom is full-time; the others have part-time contracts. The contracts assured the employees a gross hourly wage of 7.71 euros.
Franchisee for upper franconia
By the way, the franchisee responsible for upper franconia (i.E. The owner of the license to operate a burger-king restaurant) is not the same as the one on the tv show; this branch belonged to the so-called yi-ko-holding company. In himmelkron, on the other hand, JKF systemgastronomie gmbh has the say. BR spoke yesterday with the owner, who, however, wanted to remain unnamed due to the current developments. He himself operates branches in bamberg, coburg, munchberg and breitengubbach in addition to the himmelkroner branch and has nothing to do with the critically lit yi-ko holding company.
"We ran our restaurants for twelve years as a self-employed middleman on the spot. As far as the hygiene deficiencies shown in the TV report are concerned, I can say for our companies: we have not yet had any complaints from the food inspectorate."
Our interlocutor did not want to go into the contracts and contractual models with the employees of system catering, which were also criticized by the unions. As a licensee, he had been instructed by the company's headquarters to forward press inquiries, including those about the modalities of employment, to the management in munich. There is no way through by phone.
Violation of corporate values
An official statement has now been published by burger-king germany. In it, he said that the actions documented at RTL represented "a violation of our corporate values. We have no tolerance or acceptance for actions that undermine the trust of our guests and the reputation we have built up."