Opinion: Owners of Asheville-area Dunkin’s Donuts are fair-minded people

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Ashvegas: The City You Love. The News You Want.What follows is a letter to the editor emailed in from employees of Citi Brands LLC, the Asheville-area franchisee of Dunkin’ Donuts Bakery. Citi Brands recently agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The lawsuit states that Citi Brands failed to hire Darrell Littrell, a Seventh-Day Adventist who holds the sincere religious belief that he cannot work on his Sabbath, which runs from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday, according to an EEOC press release. More:

In December 2012, Littrell applied for a donut maker position at the Dunkin’ Donuts manufacturing facility owned by Citi Brands in Arden, N.C. On Jan. 3, 2013, the facility’s plant manager offered Littrell a donut maker position and told Littrell he would start work the next afternoon, a Friday, at 3 pm. Littrell responded that he could not start work on Friday afternoon because of his faith. The plant manager responded by revoking Littrell’s job offer.

 

Citi Brands agree to pay Littrell $22,000 and take other action to assure that religious discrimination would not occur in its workplace. Here’s the letter to the editor from Asheville-area Dunkin’ Donuts employees:

It’s hard for us to believe that the people we work for is being accused of discriminating against someone’s religion. With that said, we would like to take the time to tell our story of employment with this company.

First of all we would like to thank them for being such great people. There has been many situations where they have helped employees above and beyond what is ever expected from an employer. There are many different types of people who make up our company: white, black, Hispanic, Arabic, Muslim, etc.

With a wide range of nationalities within our company, we have employees of many different religions, and we have never seen any of them being looked down on or discriminated against. As a matter of fact, we all receive the same hand-delivered gift of cash by the owner himself during the Christmas holiday. We have never worked for a company who gives back more than this company.

We realize the media likes to stir up a bunch of stuff and they post things before getting all the information needed to make an accurate statement. As a person, you have every right to your own opinion, but I would challenge you to not base your opinion on everything that social media tells you. Our company owners have been put through it with this case that has been unfairly publicized.

W believe the owners of the local franchise were wrongfully accused, and there’s a high cost that goes along with that. We just wanted to take the time to let them know how much we appreciate them and assure them that we will rise above this. I could never see myself working for anyone else other than you. From the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank you for all you choose to do for us!

Dunkin’ Donuts/Citi Brands employees

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

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7 Comments

  1. RobotDanceMonkey1975 July 27, 2015

    Thanks for making it right, Dunkin’ Donuts.

    Reply
  2. Stewart July 27, 2015

    I hope the local owners are more fair-minded the the Dunkin’ Donuts CEO, who recently called a $15 minimum wage “absolutely outrageous.” He reportedly received about $10.2 million in salary and benefits last year. If he works 40 hours a week, that comes to about $5,000 per hour. Okay, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say he worked 60 hours, so now we are at $3,333 per hour for salary and benefits. But those working hard to pay the rent and put food on the table aren’t worthy of $15 hour? What a great country!!!!

    You can read more about this at

    http://www.alternet.org/dunkin-donuts-ceo-who-earns-10-million-claims-be-outraged-15-minimum-wage

    Reply
    1. Sean July 27, 2015

      If Congress passes the $15 minimum wage, will my salary be doubled as well? If so, I’m all for it! I mean, I went to school for a professional career, and have spent the last sixteen years in it, so I deserve a doubling….right? Let’s do this!

      Reply
      1. luther blissett July 28, 2015

        How’s your salary changed over the last sixteen years? How has your boss’s salary changed in that time? And how has your boss’s boss’s salary changed?

        Maybe you might think about punching up instead of punching down.

        Reply
        1. Sean July 29, 2015

          It appears as though you completely missed my sarcasm.

          Reply
  3. AVL July 27, 2015

    I feel since your Mom works for them that you do not have a fair opinion Jason. They lost the case so that pure fact.

    Reply
    1. Jason Sandford July 27, 2015

      What’s posted is not my opinion, AVL. But if you want to know, I agree with the employees: top-notch folks at Citi Brands.

      Reply

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