Incidents of breakage have allegedly caused ‘serious injuries’ among employees
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A group of Tim Hortons franchisees is raisings concerns over the quality of coffee and tea pots they are required to use.
The restaurant owners claimed there had been an “unprecedented” number of glass containers breaking and injuring employees, with the latest incident happening last week.
“We continue to receive reports of shattering coffee and tea pots,” said Peter Proszanski, a lawyer for the Great White North Franchisee Association, in a letter to Tim Hortons’ legal team.
“Franchisees and their employees are currently suffering from serious injuries as a result of the shattering coffee and tea pots,” Proszanski said. The complainants reported injuries such as “burnt thighs, feet, and genitals”.
The group has purportedly been pressuring Restaurant Brands International (RBI), parent company of Tim Hortons, to look into the matter and find an alternative supplier since 2017.
The franchise owners are expecting Tim Hortons or RBI to respond to calls for a new supplier by Sept. 7.
RBI, however, denied the allegations of faulty containers. “We have conducted extensive quality assurance testing that has proven that the only way to consistently replicate the breakage of a glass pot is if it is used incorrectly,” said RBI spokeswoman Jane Almeida.
Bloomfield, which has been supplying Tim Hortons’ coffee pots for two decades, said it has not modified its products in the past 10 years.
