MANY managers, kitchen staff, supervisors and auxiliary staff at the recently opened fast food restaurants housed in the 704 building at Albert and Lamaha Streets have been fired.

Within the past three weeks, close to three dozen persons have been laid off from Miami Subs and Grill, Papa Pete’s Pizzeria and Dixie Lee, the three franchises being operated by Pomeroon Food and Beverage Inc.
This publication was told by some former employees that the management had said the company was not making money and as business picks up during the Christmas season they would make contact with some of them to be re-employed.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment yesterday a senior operative of the company, who declined to be named, confirmed that several persons were sent home but the official debunked the claims given by some of its former employees for the layoffs.

DELAY IN OPENING SPORTS BAR
The senior operative told the Guyana Chronicle that what the company really experienced was a delay in the opening of its sports bar. It was initially scheduled to be opened shortly after the fast food franchises almost two months ago. However that did not happen, because the person who was to head that section and who resides in the United States was involved in an accident, leaving the opening date uncertain.
This newspaper was told that most of the staff who were sent home, were to be employed upstairs and having them working in the fast food franchises was to ensure that personnel would be readily available for the sports bar.
However, among the lot sent home some were not pulling their weight in job performance and were not giving adequate support to other staff in bringing quality service to customers.
According to the operative who spoke, some of those who were sent home will be called back when the sports bar is opened and that is expected to be by the end of December or early January.
With respect to the managers, the source said that those who were sent home would have been cited for non-performance.
This newspaper was told that these senior managers did very little to motivate the staff who worked under them, causing staffers to be concerned that some of their issues were being ignored.
Meanwhile, the company has already put out advertisements for managers, supervisors, bar-tenders and other staff in local newspapers.
The sending home of the senior managers was done to protect the business and save the jobs of dozens of persons who worked under them, because their non-performance and failure to motivate staff could have led to the closure of the business, the operations personnel contended.

(By Leroy Smith)