Facts

A Pizza Hut In Florida Ordered Employees Not To Flee Hurricane Irma

pizza hut Jonathan Weiss / shutterstock.com
Taylor Rock|

The manager of a Pizza Hut in Jacksonville, Florida, is under fire after ordering employees to come in to work rather than evacuate due to the incoming hurricane. A picture of the typed statement — telling workers they couldn't skip out on shifts without more than one day's notice — has gone viral on Twitter.

"As a general rule of thumb, we close stores 6-12 hours before a storm hits," the bulletin reads. "If evacuating, you will have a 24-hour period before storm 'grace period' to not be scheduled. You cannot evacuate Friday for a Tuesday storm event! Failure to show for these shifts, regardless of reason, will be considered a no call/no show and documentation will be issued."

The notice also demanded that evacuated employees return within 72 hours.

Record flooding washed over Jacksonville, where storm surges were expected to push water four to six feet above normal high tides, reports NBC News.

Pizza Hut has released a statement on the company's blog, which reads, "We are uncompromising in our commitment to the safety and well-being of our team members. All locations in the path of Irma are closed and will remain closed until local authorities deem the area safe. We absolutely do not have a policy that dictates when team members can leave or return from a disaster, and the manager who posted this letter did not follow company guidelines. We can also confirm that the local franchise operator has addressed this situation with the manager involved."

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