Chick-fil-A asking "volunteers" to work for food vouchers instead of money

Chick-fil-A faces backlash after asking "volunteers" to work for food vouchers instead of money

Would you work at Chick-fil-A for an hourly wage of five chicken sandwiches?

This is essentially what one of the fast food chain’s locations attempted to pull off in North Carolina before receiving backlash from customers.

In a Facebook post on July 26, a Chick-fil-A in Hendersonville celebrated the opening of its new “Drive Thru Express” in a questionable way — by asking people to work the drive-through for food vouchers instead of money.

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“We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express!” the now-deleted post reads. “Earn five free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked. Message us for details.”

The post was deleted by Monday afternoon after people started dragging the restaurant in the comments and on social media.

People are still commenting about the questionable hiring practice on the location’s other Facebook posts.

“Glad to see you deleted the highly illegal volunteer post. Pay workers money not chicken,” one person replied to a photo of a Chick-fil-A employee carrying a kid eating ice cream.

“Can I volunteer to own the store then fire whatever clown came up with volunteering work idea?” replied another person to photos of the restaurant’s employees celebrating Taco Tuesday.

And Reddit proved that no Facebook post is truly deleted on the internet after a user shared screenshots of the Chick-fil-A “volunteer” call-out on the popular discussion forum site.

The Reddit post received over 22,000 interactions and over 3,000 comments putting the store on blast.

“That needs to be reported to the state department of labor,” reads a top comment on the post. “For-profit businesses aren’t allowed to use volunteers, especially not volunteers who would displace paid employees… It is also a HUGE liability issue for the store.”

Many commenters also noted that the fast food chain’s owners are worth billions of dollars and should not be asking people to work for free.

Others also reminded people that the company has a long history of donating to anti-LGBTQ organizations.

One of the Reddit screenshots shows the restaurant attempting to address the backlash in a comment.

“Thanks for everyone’s concern on this matter,” it reads. “This is a volunteer-based opportunity, which means people can opt in to volunteer if they think it’s a good fit for them. We’ve had multiple people sign up and enjoy doing [it] and have done it multiple times.”

A Chick-fil-A spokesperson told Business Insider that the company did not endorse the “volunteer” program and that the location has decided to end it.

“Most restaurants are individually owned and operated, and it was a program at an individually owned restaurant,” stated the spokesperson.

While the Hendersonville location is getting flack for its “volunteer” program, the restaurant actually announced a pay raise from $15 to $19 for its full-time employees last summer, according to Hendersonville Times-News.