At a Popeyes in Oakland a 13-year-old was working until midnight on school nights and 17-year-old workers were working shifts longer than permitted. By law, 13-year-olds are not allowed to work on school days, and 17-year-olds cannot work past 10 pm or for more than 4 hours on school nights.
The workers fear for their safety because of multiple violent incidents including an altercation in which a manager beat a customer with a baseball bat and another worker beat the customer with a trash can, pepper spray incidents including one in which a worker was accidently sprayed by the security guard, and an incident in which a security guard threatened to kill a customer in a conflict about not being able to bring a bike into the store. The young workers are also subjected to sexual harassment at work, including a manager calling them prostitutes, asking a worker if she likes small or big male genitalia, and asking another minor if the hair on her head matched the hair on her genetalia.
One 17-year-old worker stated the violence at work triggered her depression, she started failing her classes, and had a hard time catching up because of working from 5pm to 10pm on school nights. Another teen worker stated that she was kept at work until 11pm and then missed her morning classes the next day due to arriving late at school, was tired at school, and was called in to work during school hours. Workers at this Popeyes store are also denied legally-required rest breaks. “Working like this takes a big emotional toll, and has impacted our learning at school,” explained the workers in their Child Labor Complaint to the Bureau of Field Enforcement. The workers also filed a violence complaint with CalOSHA.