It’s a real-life twist of fate so delicious not even a Hollywood writer could have crafted it better: After years of legal sparring with Jordan Tobins, founder of the embattled local pizza chain Upper Crust, former employees of the bankrupt company are now poised to take over the restaurant’s Harvard Square outpost. It’s a long way from 2009, when the company was compelled by the US Department of Labor to pay workers around $350,000 in back wages. Employees later maintained in a class-action suit, which is expected to go to trial next summer, that company executives had pressured them to give the payments back.
The plan of redemption was engineered by Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who represented the employees in their lawsuits against the company. Along with another investor, Liss-Riordan outbid Tobins and other interested parties to take control of the Cambridge restaurant at an auction this week. She has already announced her intentions to offer ownership shares to the chain’s former employees.
Comments
Jordan Tobins gives business owners a bad name. As someone who runs a successful business, employing many well paid employees, I think it's disgusting that you would exploit your employees to pay for a lavish lifestyle. It's a great lesson about what greed and a lust for living large can do to someone who's achieved a level of success.
I hope that other franchises revert to their exploited workers. This greedy criminal ruined a great thing. We loved their pies, but stopped buying when we understood the nature of Mr Tobins' business model. We would love to resume eating their excellent pizza when he is no longer part of the equation.
I meant locations instead of franchises.