WORKER HEALTH & SAFETY COMPLAINT - VIOLENCE - IMMINENT HAZARD - IMMEDIATE ACTION -

RESPONSE REQUESTED

CalOSHA
Oakland District Office
Wendy Hogle-Lui, District Manager
1515 Clay Street, Ste. 1303
Oakland, CA 94612
phone:(510) 622-2916
fax:(510) 622-2908

Via email: DOSHOAK@dir.ca.gov

May 17, 2023

RE: Popeyes, 7007 International Blvd, Oakland CA 94621

-Related Child Labor Complaint filed May 17, 2023 with BOFE, attached

Owner: 14th Street Chicken Corporation, dba Popeyes

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

We, the undersigned, work at the Popeyes located at 7007 International Boulevard in Oakland. We do
not feel safe at work. Recent violent incidents have shown that not only is management not taking
sufficient action to protect us from violence at the store, but there is also an urgent lack of training at all
levels within the store on de-escalation and how to handle violent situations. Security guards have
threatened to kill customers, they have pepper-sprayed both customers and employees, and last month
when a customer assaulted an employee, one of our managers, Georgina, responded by hitting the
customer repeatedly with an aluminum baseball bat..

Please use the enforcement authority of CalOSHA to ensure our employer has an effective Injury and
Illness Prevention Program for violence and to hold our employer accountable for complying with the
Program. To be effective, we believe that the Program must include and require our employer to:

• Call 911 when there is a threat or emergency

• Provide trained security at the store, including training in de-escalation
• Provide ongoing training for all employees on handling violent incidents, including de-escalation
training, and including reviewing current and recent incidents
• Develop an effective response plan when there is a violent incident at the store, including
sending trained security to address threats, and not sending workers to address threats
• For workers affected by violent incidents at the store, provide medical and mental health care as
required, including information about Workers Compensation.

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STATEMENT OF JOHMARA ROMERO
My name is Johmara Romero, I am a cashier and I have been working at the Popeyes at 7007
International Blvd in Oakland since early February 2023. Since I started I’ve only received basic training
on how to take orders, not how to deal with violence. Our customers can be aggressive. I have anxiety,
and it gets bad when it gets loud and people start yelling. Sometimes people start arguing with the
security guard or they’ll argue with us. Sometimes they throw stuff at employees.

Last month there were two incidents where I had customers shouting at me. Once while I was trying to
help a new employee who was dealing with a difficult customer, and the other time was when I refused
to personally walk a customer’s order out to their car in the parking lot. In these kinds of situations we
are told only that we should call a manager over. Sometimes the situation gets resolved, but sometimes
the customers remain angry and storm off saying they’ll never come back.

One night there was some sort of an argument between the employees and a customer. It escalated to
the point where the employees were throwing whatever they could get their hands on at the customer,
and the customer used a chair to step over the counter and start hitting the employees. The employees
outnumbered her and they immediately threw her to the ground and hit the customer with another
trash can. At this point the manager Georgina stepped in with a baseball bat and started hitting the
customer with it over and over. I wasn’t there when it occurred, but I know what happened because
there was a video of this incident from late February 2023 that was uploaded to Tiktok
(https://twitter.com/Tr00peRR/status/1630651247169511438?s=20). I was shocked to see the way that
the employees and the manager responded to that situation. Still it’s been over a month since that
incident occurred, and there has been no response from the managers. Sometimes they make jokes
about it at work as if it’s okay. One of the employees involved in attacking the customer is even training
to become a manager himself.

Our security guards also do not seem to be trained to handle these kinds of situations. Two weeks ago
one of our security guards threatened to kill a customer who entered the store. I know he pepper
sprayed two people just last month. One day while I was working he pepper sprayed an unhoused
woman who was refusing to leave and I watched her run out covering her face. Another day when I
arrived to pick up my check there were ambulances around because he had pepper sprayed someone
else.

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STATEMENT OF KARLA PALMA MENDOZA
My name is Karla Palma Mendoza. I have been working at Popeyes for at least two months. I go to school
during the day so I usually work the night shift from 5 to 10 or 11. I work at the drive-thru and as a
cashier, and sometimes I help package orders. I’ve never worked a job like this before and I feel like I
always have to have my guard up because management isn’t doing enough to protect us and keep us
safe.

I feel like customers at our location can be rude and have bad attitudes. I get worried about what could
happen when they get mad. A lot of people at the drive-thru get angry because the order isn’t right or
the food is cold, and it feels like they might hurt you. When a customer yells at me I have to block it out. I
try to avoid the situation and get a manager involved. I don’t want to get hit through the window or
pepper-sprayed.

I’ve heard that our security guard pepper sprayed an employee working the drive through during an
argument between the employee and the customer. Last month I saw that same guard threaten a
customer that had come in with a bike. I was working the day shift that day when the customer came in.
She got really mad when the security guard told her she couldn’t bring her bike inside. She grabbed a
bunch of cups and threw them at the security guard before heading towards the exit. This made the
security guard angry, it looked like he was going to pull his pepper spray out but instead he threatened
her, saying “I’m going to shoot you next time you come here.” He chased her out of the building. I
couldn’t hear what they were saying outside, but eventually the woman left with her bike.

Security needs more training to do better in those kinds of situations. I’m afraid something like that
could happen again. Managers never follow up with us after these kinds of incidents. I also saw the video
online of the incident with the customer who jumped over the counter and I felt that it wasn’t right for
my coworkers to start beating her with a trashcan and a bat. We need more training to learn how to deal
with these issues.

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CALOSHA AUTHORITY REGARDING WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
CalOSHA must ensure our employer has an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program for the hazard
of workplace violence, and hold our employer accountable for complying with the Program.

CalOSHA has asserted jurisdiction over the issue of workplace violence going back decades, and issued
specific guidance on this hazard in 1995. According to the CalOSHA Guidelines for Workplace Security,
Revised March 30, 1995, CalOSHA lists “eating/drinking establishments” (SIC Codes 5812 and 5813) as
“high-risk occupations/workplaces for fatal assault” and states that “every employer should perform an
initial assessment to identify workplace security factors which have been shown to contribute to the risk
of violence in the workplace.”

The Guidelines state:

All complaints alleging a workplace security hazard shall be evaluated by the Cal/OSHA District Manager
receiving the complaint in the same manner as any other complaint according to the criteria set forth in
Cal/OSHA's Policy and Procedure (P&P) Manual, Section C-7 (Complaint Evaluation and Documentation).
If a complaint alleges a workplace security hazard which has a reasonable basis in fact, and does not
represent willful harassment of the employer, the complaint is valid and shall be classified and handled
as are other valid complaints. A complaint is valid even if there is no standard which specifically
addresses the hazard alleged.

The Guidelines continue:

During a workplace security evaluation, Cal/OSHA compliance personnel shall, at a minimum, determine
the answers to the following six questions:

1. Is the inspected establishment one which is considered to be at significant risk of a Type I, II or III
workplace violence event?
2. What are the physical characteristics and the work practices of the establishment that affect the
security of the employees who work in the establishment?
3. Have assaults occurred in the establishment in the past? If so, how often have these assaults
occurred and what was their severity?
4. What measures were taken by the employer to investigate the cause(s) of assault(s) and what
corrective measures were taken by the employer to prevent other assaults?
5. What, if any, are the specific workplace security issues the employer's IIP Program should
address?
6. If the employer is required to address workplace security issues through the IIP Program, how
effective is the employer's IIP Program in identifying and correcting workplace security hazards
and in investigating workplace assaults? Does the IIP Program result in effective communication,
hazard assessment, hazard correction and supervisory and employee training.

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Ownership Information, California Secretary of State, Statement of Information

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DESIGNATION OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATIVE
We designate Fight for $15 California as the employee representative in all contacts with CalOSHA and
the company for this Complaint. We also designate Maria Maldonado from Fight for $15 California as my
designated employee representative, he can be reached at workersupport@thefightfor15.org. Ms.
Maldonado 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 the hazards at this site. Such a meeting can be held either before or after the physical inspection
of the worksite.

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

Sincerely,

Johmara Romero

Karla Palma Mendoza