[nfbmi-talk] Fw: Article from Christian Science Monitor Business Section 2015 10 23

[Georgia Kitchen]

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From: NFB-NEWSLINE Online <nfbnewsline at nfb.org>
to: Georgia Kitchen <gkitchen at samobile.net>
Subject: Article from Christian Science Monitor Business Section 2015 10 23
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 08:52:18 -0400 (EDT)

Autistic Applebee's cook to receive first paycheck after year of work. 
The restaurant chain has agreed to issue Caleb Dyl a check for 480 
hours worth of previously unpaid work, after his family alerted a local 
news station to the story. Michael Holtz Staff writer. After working at 
an Applebee's restaurant in Rhode Island three days a week for about 
year, Caleb Dyl, a 21-year-old autistic man, is finally going to 
receive his first paycheck.. Mr. Dyl started work as a part-time 
prep-cook at the restaurant in August 2014. Resources for Human 
Development (RHD), a state-funded social service agency, helped place 
him in the job.. Dyl completed a training program at the restaurant 
without pay before he was scheduled to start receiving minimum wage 
last August. But his parents say he was never paid.. Dyl's father, Bob, 
told WPRI that he helped his son fill out the proper paperwork at least 
twice last year. Still, no checks and that went on for months.. "It 
wasn't about money for him, though," his father told WPRI, a local news 
station in Providence. "He liked working there. So we went to RHD a 
number of times and expected the problem to be taken care of. Eleanor 
Clancy, a New England regional director of operations for the 
Applebee's chain, told WPRI that the restaurant has agreed to pay Dyl 
for 480 hours after his parents argued that's how many he worked. 
Applebee's officials initially agreed to pay him for 166 hours, based 
on RHD's records.. Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral 
Healthcare, Development Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) says it is 
investigating the incident.. "We need to talk to them to have a better 
idea of what they did," said Charles Williams, BHDDH's director of the 
Division of Developmental Disabilities, told WPRI. "It's clear what 
they didn't do at this point but we need to know what they did and 
pretty much what they knew. Applebee's isn't the first company accused 
of underpaying its disabled workers. The US Department of Labor reports 
that workers with disabilities are often paid less than minimum wage. 
The practice, which is permitted under US labor laws, has drawn 
criticism from the public.. In 2013, a string of news reports revealed 
that Goodwill had been paying some of its disabled employees far less 
than minimum wage. The non-profit organization had reportedly paid 
workers in Pennsylvania as little as 22 cents, 38 cents, and 41 cents 
an hour, according to Labor Department documents obtained by NBC, 
sparking outrage from the public.. This report contains material from 
the Associated Press. .

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