Sunday, March 30, 2008

"America's Favorite" Endangerer

Restaurant officials have suspended the Pizza Hut driver, James William Spiers, while the case is under investigation. Polk County officials today confirmed that Spiers holds a valid gun permit, which was renewed in November....

Vonnie Walbert, vice president of human resources at Pizza Hut, said:“We have policy against carrying weapons. We prohibit employees from carrying guns because we believe that that is the safest for everybody.”

Walbert said Pizza Hut trains employees to report such incidences to police.
Vonnie, did you set out to be this thick, or do you actually know better and you're just mouthing the incantations required by your position? I guess the corporate risk management types have decided staying mum on the subject is tantamount to implied consent, and the fear is one of their drivers will drag them into a wrongful injury or death lawsuit.

And besides, delivery drivers are easy to replace. You might even call them expendable.

Between those two "realities," I guess corporate drones could self-excuse just enough to be able to look at themselves in the mirror.

[Via M. Terry]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We prohibit employees from carrying guns because we believe that that is the safest for everybody."

Markie Marxist sez: "I'm glad to see that Vonnie Walbert of Pizza Hut gives equal consideration to our Marxist/warrior/hero/criminals as he does to his employees. We need all the help we can get to destabilize America and bring down capitalist businesses, which includes Pizza Hut. Thanks, Vonnie!"

Unknown said...

The problem is that the legal system would put the responsibility of a wrongful injury/death onto the corporation instead of the individual. The company doesn't really have a choice -- the driver won't be the focus of the lawsuit.

Go fix liability law so that individuals are responsible for their own actions. Then you'll have a complaint against companies that deny them their right to be responsible for their own actions.

David Codrea said...

You mean treat companies like charities and do all of their legal work for them, BD? While they sit back and provide no leadership, no funding, no lobbying?

Maybe if we fix rope laws, capitalists won't be so eager to sell it to the communists...?

I'm not arguing with your initial statement--I alluded to as much myself. And people can argue about corporate responsibility to the stockholder 'til the cows come home and that won't change the fact that these companies are not just abiding by citizen disarmament laws, they are actively expanding them to prohibit lawful concealed carry.

Someone can come up with every excuse in the book as to why they want me disarmed. That doesn't change the fact that that person is my enemy.

I also fault "Gun Lobby" organizations to a degree--they have known about the delivery dilemma for years now--what role are they willing to play to introduce legislation prohibiting employers from preempting concealed carry off company premises?

(The topic of guns on-premises is already being handled to a degree with the parking lot legislation, which is a different discussion from what this post is focusing on.)

Kent McManigal said...

Some HONORABLE business in the area needs to offer James a job so he can walk away from Pizza Hut without losing money.

Anonymous said...

Something so many people seem to forget is that the driver could harm others in several dozen ways while he's working and the issue with company liability would be identical, except for the hysteria about guns, of course.

There is no rational reason for any company to forbid their employees armed self defense. If a person is irresponsible or aggressive, they can harm others no matter what they use - including their bare hands.