FAST FOOD - CHILD LABOR - NO WORK PERMITS - EXCESSIVE HOURS - PROHIBITED HOURS - WAGE

THEFT - RESPONSE REQUESTED

DLSE - BOFE
1515 Clay Street, Suite 801
Oakland CA 94612
(510) 622-3273

Via email: DLSE

LaborComm.WCA.OAK@dir.ca.gov

May 17, 2023

RE: Popeyes, 7007 International Blvd, Oakland CA 94621

-BOFE DLSE1, attached
-related CalOSHA violence complaint filed 5/17/2023 attached

Owner: 14TH STREET CHICKEN CORP, dba Popeyes

Mohammad Zarif Noor, CEO, CFO; Sedig Joe Amin, Secretary
7007 International Blvd, Oakland CA 94621

We are Johmara Romero and Karla Palma Mendoza and we ask that BOFE investigate child labor
violations at the Popeyes where we work, located at 7007 International Blvd in Oakland. Our employer
has violated almost every law put in place to protect young workers like us.

One of our coworkers started working at this Popeyes 1.5 years ago when she was 13 years old, in 7th
grade, and from the start she has been working 6 days a week, including working until midnight three
school nights each week. By law, 13-year-olds are not allowed to work at all on school days and are not
allowed to work more than 8 hours on non-school days, but she has regularly been working 40-45 hours
per week. Since she turned 14 years old, she continued to work the same schedule until a few weeks
ago, when we all started being retaliated against and having our schedules cut for talking together about
filing complaints about the problems at the store. By law, 14-year-olds can not work more than 3 hours
on school days or 8-hours on non-school days, and cannot work past 7pm on school nights. Johmara and
Karla, both 17-year-olds, have been working as late as 11:30 pm on school nights and for shifts that are
longer than allowed, including 6.5 hour shifts on school nights and 10 hours shifts on non-school
days. On top of the child labor violations, we are also being cheated out of our rest breaks and we are
not being paid correctly. We do not receive our second legally-required 10-minute rest breaks on shifts
longer than 6 hours at this store, including on the shifts we work that go as long as 8 or 10 hours.

We are also subjected to ongoing sexual harassment and workplace violence. The manager Gerogina
knows we are minors, yet she has made sexually inappropriate comments towards us, calling us
prostitutes because we were standing around the store, asking Karla if she likes small or big male
genitalia, and asking another minor if the hair on her head matched the hair on her genitalia.

We are worried about our safety because of all the violence at the store. In February 2023 a manager-in-
training threw a cup at a customer, the customer jumped over the counter, and the manager Georgina
jumped into the altercation and started hitting the customer with a baseball bat while another worker

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beat the customer with a trash can. In April, a Popeyes security guard accidentally pepper-sprayed an
employee. Karla was at work when the security guard threatened to kill a customer who was upset she
wasn’t allowed to bring her bike into the store.

Working like this takes a big emotional toll, and has also impacted our learning at school. During six
weeks working at Popeyes before she graduated, Johmara experienced several Child Labor Violations
that directly impacted her education, such as being kept at work until 11pm and then missing the
morning class the next day due to arriving late to school, just being too tired at school, and being called
into work during school hours. Karla feels the violence at work triggered her depression, she started
failing her classes, and had a hard time catching up because of working from 5pm to 10pm on school
nights.

Please investigate Child Labor violations at this Popeyes, including:

• Work on school days until midnight by worker at ages 13 and 14; 13-year-old workers are not
allowed to work on school days, and 14-year old workers are only allowed to work 3 hours on
school days, and only until 7 pm
• Work 40-45 hours per week by worker at ages 13 and 14 while school is in session; worked more
than 40 hours per week when school was not in session
• Work beyond the allowed spread of hours, including until 11:30 pm on school nights, past the 10
pm limit for 16- to 17-year-old workers
• Work beyond the allowed number of hours on school days, including up to 6 - 6.5 hours, more
than the 4 hours allowed for 16- to 17-year-old workers
• Work beyond the allowed shift length on non-school days, including shifts up to 10 hours on
weekend days, more than the 8 hours allowed for 16- to 17-year-old workers
• Not requiring work permits for minor high school students; employer knew the workers were
minor high school students

Here is more information about Child Labor Violations at this Popeyes:

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STATEMENT OF JOHMARA ROMERO
My name is Johmara Romero and I was a 17-year-old high school student at Lincoln High School in San
Leandro when I started working at the Popeyes at 7007 International Blvd in Oakland in February 2023.
When I applied for the job, I wrote on my job application that I was 17 years old, and in the hiring
interview, Vicky, the manager, asked me if I was in school and I said “Yes,” so management at Popeyes
knew I was a 17-year old high school student, but they did not ask me for a work permit. I work as a
cashier, mostly in the drive-thru. I have been interested in criminal justice since I was little, and I want to
study to become a crime scene investigator.

I would say there was a Child Labor violation at work that affected my education about once every two
weeks, such as being kept at work until 11pm and then missing my morning class because I was late the
next day, just being too tired at school, and being called into work during school hours. I was typically
scheduled to work 5- to 6-hour shifts on school days 3 times a week – for example on Monday, Tuesday
and Thursday – which is more than the 4 hours allowed. I am often scheduled to work until 10 pm, but
sometimes when my shift is over the manager tells me, “You are staying until 11.” One time I worked
until 11pm on a school night, and I was late for school the next morning, because I overslept. When they
ask if I can stay later, they don’t change it on the schedule. One time they called me into work at noon
on a school day, even though school goes until 2:30 pm, because they were short-staffed, so I skipped
school that day. I was a bit worried about it because of my class work, I had Economics, English II and
English IV that day, and when I came back the next day I was behind. I graduated high school March 17,
2023, though I am still 17 years old.

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STATEMENT OF KARLA PALMA MENDOZA
My name is Karla Palma Mendoza and I have worked at the Popeyes at 7007 International Blvd in
Oakland since around March 2023. I am 17 years old, which is what I wrote on my job application. I go to
school at LPS Oakland, and I study Spanish, Economics, English and Writing. I am saving up to become a
lash technician. It costs around $700 or $1000 for the lash tech classes, and you have to buy supplies. I
am also saving to get an apartment and a car.

I have been working 5-hour shifts after school, from 5pm to 10pm. At one point I fell far behind in my
classes, and it was hard to catch up because after school, all I could do was work, eat and sleep. I worry
about all the violent incidents at this Popeyes, and that something could happen to me. One time when I
was working the security guard threatened to shoot a customer who was angry about not being allowed
to bring her bike into the store, and there was a video on TikTok when the manager Georgina was
beating a customer who jumped the counter with a bat. I fell into a depression and lost my motivation
and started failing my classes. I had depression before, and I was going through a lot of stuff but really I
feel it was the violence at Popeyes this time that triggered it. At first I felt like I just didn’t care. The
school told me I wasn’t going to graduate if I didn’t catch up. I talked with a therapist, and that helped,
and then I realized I might as well finish school. I worked very hard to catch up, and I felt like I didn’t
have time to connect with my friends because I had to spend my breaks and lunch getting help from my
teachers and doing school work, because after school I have no time for homework when I am working.

I am sad that I am going to miss Grad Night, my class is going to Los Angeles and Disneyland for
graduation, but I decided not to go because being broke is not for me, and I am afraid of asking for time
off of work and getting retaliated against and then losing my income. Management took me off the
schedule this week, and I don’t want to risk losing my job by asking for time off. Management said they
heard we were talking about making complaints, and now they are retaliating against us. On Sunday
May 7, the owner, Joe, came into the store and asked me for my work permit, and told me I would be
taken off the schedule if I didn’t submit one, but even though I submitted one, they still took me off the
schedule for the whole week. They didn’t ask me for a work permit when I first got hired, and they knew
I was 17 and in high school, they only asked now that we are standing up for ourselves. I told Joe that I
am turning 18 on May 19, and I submitted a work permit to Sandra, a manager, and Vicky, another
manager, saw that I submitted it, but they still took me off the schedule. I was on the schedule for May
13 and 14, but Vicky called me a half hour before I was supposed to go in to work on May 13, after I had
already submitted my work permit, and told me that I was off the schedule and not to come in. I don’t
want that to happen again, so I am afraid to ask for the days off for the Grad Night trip.

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Ownership Information, California Secretary of State

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DESIGNATION OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVE
We designate Fight for $15 California as the designated employee representative in all contacts with
the Office of the Labor Commissioner and the company for this Complaint; they can be reached
at workersupport@thefightfor15.org. They will be happy to provide you with any information which
will assist you in investigating this case and arrange for your inspector to meet privately, at a site away
from the workplace, with workers to discuss child labor violations at this site.

We worked with Fight for $15 staff to translate and transcribe this statement.

Sincerely,

Johmara Romero

Karla Palma Mendoza