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Unexpected Frisch’s closure forces workers to transfer or be fired, ex-employee says

By WHIO Staff
By WHIO Staff

MIDDLETOWN — Frisch’s locations are closing across Ohio, with little to no warning for their workers.

Employees say they have been ordered to sign transfer documents or lose their jobs.

“They kept telling us we’re going to stay open, there was a continuance, which we found out later was a lie,” Haley Johnson told our news partner WCPO. “And then the day of us closing is the day we found out it was closing.”

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Sunday was Johnson’s last day working at the Middletown location.

Both customers and employees said they felt blindsided by the closure.

“It was really sad,” Johnson said. “We had regulars come in, there was a lot of tears shed, it was horrible.”

Johnson said she was presented with a document on her last day asking her to transfer to another location.

The document asks employees to write down their two preferred locations. The only other option for employees was resigning. After refusing to sign the document, Johnson found out she had been fired.

Employment law specialist Matt Miller-Novak told WCPO former Frisch’s employees have little to no recourse.

“If you’re terminated for cause you also don’t get unemployment, so part of what concerns me here is that if you don’t sign this as a Frisch’s employee, and they terminate you, that would be considered a termination for cause, which would result in essentially not qualifying for unemployment,” Miller-Novak said.

WCPO reached out to Frisch’s, but they have not heard back from the company.

Johnson’s next step is finding a new job so she can provide for her two children.

“It was more than lies, they had us believing we were really going to be OK and have a job,” said Johnson. “We got Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I don’t know how I’m going to provide for them when it’s just me and them.”

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