Dive Brief:
- Due to a series of missteps, Caleb Dyl, a 21-year-old autistic man and employee of Applebee’s in Middleton, RI, worked 480 hours over a year’s time without any compensation, according to recent news reports.
- Dyl, a Portsmouth RI resident, worked at the Middletown restaurant three days a week for about a year, according to WPRI, a local TV station. Recently, it was discovered that he was never paid a dime due to a series of issues between a local agency that helps disabled workers find jobs and the Applebee's restaurant.
- Eleanor Clancy, the regional director of operations for the Applebee’s chain, explained that management staff at the restaurant was clueless about Dyl's situuation until it was contacted by Target 12, an investigative reporting unit at WPRI. “We have to make this right,” Clancy said, adding that a check would be mailed to Caleb as soon as possible.
Dive Insight:
Applebee's said Dyl never clocked into work, something that a caseworker for Resources for Human Development (RHD) failed to help him do. RHD, a Rhode Island agency, had placed Caleb in a training program at the restaurant to see if he would make a good prep cook.
After is was all sorted out, Applebee's is now giving Dyl and his family a check for 480 hours of unpaid work.
The lesson here? While the red tape issues and poor performance of the agency clearly made this situation happen, the HR function at Applebee's needs to revisit the company's overall policy on hiring developmentally disabled workers to ensure that things are being done properly. Mainly, it's a shock to find out that it took a TV station investigation before Applebee's had the chance to make it right.
