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Kelowna  

Wings closes, jobs lost

1:15 p.m. update:

According to an email leaked to Castanet the Wings Corporate office says they hope to reopen the restaurant in Rutland and rehire employees who've lost their jobs.

Here is the email:

We at Head Office have been in touch with the landlord working as quickly as we can to reopen this location. We have also been in touch with the employees & assured them that when we are able to make the conversion we will welcome them all back.
 
Thanks and hope this clarifies things.
 
Best Regards


Laticia Naicker


6 a.m. original story: Employees at Wings restaurant in Rutland were utterly surprised Tuesday morning to find the front doors locked and a handwritten sign placed on the door saying the eatery was closed until further notice.

Kylene Bray is a single mother who has worked as a server at Wings since they opened roughly three months ago. She tells Castanet that she was shocked when she arrived at work.

“I showed up to work today at 10 o’clock (Tuesday morning) and the doors were closed,” says Bray.

“I started crying right away. I have a little boy. I’m a single mom. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Apparently she wasn’t the only one to find out about the restaurants closing in this fashion; roughly 20 other employees also found out the same way.

Bray says everything was fine when she left work Monday afternoon, but she did find it odd when management asked everyone for their keys — they spoke of a security issue and told everyone they were changing the locks. She was also paid on Monday, an unusual occurrence because Friday was her normal pay day.

Other than that, she says business had been good.

“It was steady, and I made good tips. I mean that’s what I live off of,” says the 34-year-old mom.

Bray believes she is still owed about $300 plus holiday pay, saying she received the equivalent of her previous pay cheque, meaning Monday’s pay did not take into account current hours worked.

She expects other employees are in similar situations.

Further compounding her problems, Bray recently moved into a new place and paid her first month’s rent with Monday’s pay cheque. Now she has no money and wonders what will happen next.

Bray has heard that the company is aware of the situation and are attempting to rectify things, but wonders if she’ll still have a job, even if new owners are brought in.

“And even if new owners do come in, I don’t think we’ll get all our hours back. I finally got a job from Monday to Friday, ten until five. You can’t find that serving.”

Calls to Wings head office in Burnaby were not immediately returned.

If you were also affected by Wings sudden closure, please contact Castanet - [email protected].

We want to hear your story.



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