Second Cup workers claim unceremonious boot from jobs

Some Second Cup employees in St. John's are out of work, after being unceremoniously turfed from their jobs at the Stavanger Drive coffee shop with no word on back pay.

The employees say a representative from the company's corporate office showed up at the location Monday night and proceeded to tell customers and employees to vacate the building.

Former worker Drew Power said a number of employees are owed pay and they've filed a Federal Labour Standards complaint. Power also says they're not getting any help from their former employer.

"We haven't really gotten any information from either head office, corporate or the old franchise owner, so we're just kind of left in limbo here," Power told CBC News Tuesday.

"We had jobs yesterday, we don't have jobs this morning and people don't know how they're paying their bills."

Power said he wasn't working Monday night but stopped at the shop to grab a coffee, when head office representatives came in with a locksmith.

"Passed us some papers, said they were closing down the cafe. They asked us to usher the customers out, gather our personal belongings and leave," he said.

"They were changing the locks as they were explaining this to us, so we just kind of packed our stuff, stood in the parking lot and said, 'Well, that happened.'"

'Quite a burn'

Power said he and the other employees who left the premises contacted their co-workers to inform them they wouldn't be needed at work the next morning.

According to Power, none of the workers knew anything about it beforehand.

"Shocking, honestly. None of us really saw it coming," he said.

Former employee Jonathan Kennedy said he's been working at the shop for about four years, but when he showed up for his shift Tuesday morning he needed to apply for a job again.

"I was there bright and early at seven o'clock at which point I was told I should have had a resume to basically re-apply for my job," he said.

Kennedy said he already had another job lined up before this happened, but it was still felt like "quite a burn" to be terminated without notice.

Business as usual

Kennedy said he and his co-workers haven't heard a word about severance pay, and employees have been brought in from other franchises to operate the shop.

Meanwhile, one of the former franchise owners, Lorne Newman, told CBC there's no story to the complaint.

Newman said the owners treated all the employees like family and all former workers will be paid every cent they're owed, and it's just a case of business changing hands.

A statement from Second Cup sent to CBC News Tuesday night stated the company will not comment on the specific situation.

However, the company said "employee management is the responsibility of each individual cafe," and the Stavanger Drive location will be operated by a franchisee who owns multiple locations in the area.