Multiple Subway locations closed without notice or explanation on Thursday, leaving employees to wonder what’s next.
Mariah Jasper, an Assistant Manager for a Subway location in Anderson, says she first worked at the Cottonwood location which closed on December 5th. She believes the store knew for two months of the closure, and told her she could either be transferred to another location, or ‘quit’.
Jasper was then transferred to a Subway store in Anderson as the Assistant Store Manager on December 6th. She says multiple employees from the previous Cottonwood location made the transition with her.
Jasper said she noticed her Subway store was closed on Thursday, Jan. 25, when passing while working an Uber shift. She checked her labor force software and noticed her store had apparently closed at 2 p.m. that day, in addition to locations all the way from Willows to Shasta Lake.
The Assistant Manager has not heard from higher management and says her supervisor was also blindsided by the closure.
Employees received messages on their labor force apps making them aware that though their stores had been closed, they had not been ‘terminated’ or ‘fired’. She says another manager made her aware that the Subway stores were put up for sale a week or so ago, and the location was told to stop ordering food products (bread, condiments, produce, etc.) around two weeks ago. The last day she worked at the location was Wednesday, January 24th.
In addition to the closure, she says that she, along with multiple other employees from different locations, have had their checks bounced. The last check she received was from Tuesday, January 23rd.
Since the company has not formerly announced the employees have been terminated, Jasper says they are unable to file for unemployment. She has created a group chat with 20 other employees from multiple locations, and says they are in the process of starting a class action lawsuit.
“This was not handled right. We don’t have any formal messenger calls, nothing saying that we were being let go. I don’t even know how many employees are jobless right now. I could possibly be homeless in the next month because of this, and it’s the same situation for multiple people,” Jasper explained to KRCR.
Jasper says her location has not posted any signage of the closure, but at least one Subway store in Redding has displayed a sign since Thursday’s closure. That sign claims the store will be “reopening in a few weeks”, but provided no reason for the closure.
Jasper believes that the stores weren’t driving enough business to stay open, and notes that the closed locations are privately owned.
At this point, since no one has officially fired or laid them off, she says they are technically still ’employees’, but was never told when or if they would open again.
“They’re trying to go any way possible where they don’t have to pay us. It was very easy to track… we were declining and going downhill,” Jasper said.
KRCR reached out to Subway for comment on Friday, but has yet to hear back.
