One of the world's largest fast-food restaurant companies. It's subsidiary KFC uses prison labor.
Yum! Brands, Inc. is one of the world's largest fast-food restaurant companies. It has over 55,000 Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and The Habit Burger Grill restaurants in more than 155 countries. In 2022, Yum! Brands employed approximately 36,000 people and generated just over $6.8 billion in revenue.
Yum! Brands subsidiary KFC uses incarcerated labor at its restaurants. According to a class-action lawsuit filed in December 2023, incarcerated individuals held in minimum-security prisons in Alabama are "leased" out and transported to day jobs at fast-food chains, including KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's.
Under this "convict leasing" system, incarcerated individuals are allegedly forced to work for KFC and other businesses that pay incarcerated workers wages lower than those required by law; impose long and demanding work hours and sometimes unsafe work conditions; and exploit such workers in other ways, knowing that they cannot refuse to work or raise concerns about workplace conditions without risking serious disciplinary action, such as being returned to "more violent and life-threatening" prisons.
The company's policies prohibit the use of forced labor but do not bar the use of all forms of prison labor.