Burger King has dismissed a mother-son duo and several of their associates after a social media post highlighting the mother’s unconventional hiring practices went viral. The incident, which occurred at a Burger King in Clinton, Mississippi, involved Shakayla Dixon, the restaurant’s manager, her son Corderrion Valentine, and three of Valentine’s friends.
Shakayla Dixon aimed to help her son and his friends earn some extra cash before the new school year. She shared a photo of the young workers on Facebook, which quickly garnered significant attention. “After the post, probably like later that evening, the post started doing numbers. It got to like 1K at that point,” Dixon explained to WLBT-3.
The post gained even more traction after being reposted by Nick Cannon to his millions of Instagram followers.
However, the viral nature of the post prompted Burger King to investigate Dixon’s hiring practices. A district manager was sent to the Clinton location due to concerns about the situation. Dixon recounted the sequence of events, saying, “I got a call from my area manager and my district leader. She said we don’t want to turn something good into something bad, but we have some concerns. The concerns she had were the fact that Corderrion is my son and how much money they were getting paid.”
Dixon was informed that minors should be paid differently than adults, a policy she claimed was never clearly communicated to her. “She told me that a minor is supposed to get paid differently than what an adult gets paid. It was never brought to my attention beforehand. My things were when it came down to policy. I feel like policy wasn’t in play in the beginning,” she added.
As a result of the policy violation, Dixon, her son, and the three other teenagers were terminated from their positions late last week. To help with their financial situation following the job loss, they have set up a GoFundMe account.
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Burger King has not yet provided an official comment on the matter.
This incident comes amid significant corporate developments for Burger King. Carrols Restaurant Group, the largest Burger King franchisee in the U.S., is set to be acquired by Restaurant Brands International for $1 billion. This acquisition follows Restaurant Brands’ announcement of a $400 million investment plan to revitalize Burger King in the U.S. and enhance its competitive position against rivals like Wendy’s, which has recently surpassed Burger King in U.S. sales.
Burger King hopes this investment will boost restaurant appeal, increase customer demand, and improve franchisee profitability.
