Is Beverly Anns Cookie responsible for hiring, training, or supervising employees at a franchised location?
Beverly_Anns_Cookie Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
You have sole responsibility and authority for all employment-related decisions, including employee selection, promotion, firing, hours worked, rates of pay, other benefits, work assignments, training and working conditions, compliance with wage and hour requirements, personnel policies, recordkeeping, supervision and discipline. We will not provide you with any advice or guidance on these matters. You must require your employees and independent contractors to review and sign any acknowledgment form we prescribe that explains the nature of the franchise relationship and notifies the employee or independent contractor that you are his or her sole employer. You agree that any direction you receive from us regarding employment/engagement policies should be considered as examples, that you alone are responsible for establishing and implementing your own policies, and that you understand that you should do so in consultation with local legal counsel competent in employment law. Your employees hired working for you will be your employees alone and will not, for any purpose, be deemed our employees or subject to our control, including with respect to any mandated or other insurance coverage, tax, or contributions, or requirements pertaining to withholdings, levied or fixed by any city, state, or federal governmental agency. You agree to inform each of your employees that you alone are the employer, and that we are not. You and we will file our own tax, regulatory, and payroll reports, and be responsible for all employee benefits and workers compensation payments with respect to our respective employees and operations, and we will save and indemnify one another of and from any liability of any nature whatsoever by virtue thereof.
Source: Item 23 — RECEIPTS (FDD pages 57–235)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Beverly Anns Cookie's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, the franchisee is solely responsible for all employment-related decisions. This includes employee selection, promotion, firing, determining hours worked and rates of pay, providing benefits, assigning work, training, setting working conditions, complying with wage and hour laws, creating personnel policies, maintaining records, and handling supervision and discipline. Beverly Anns Cookie will not provide any advice or guidance on these employment matters.
Beverly Anns Cookie requires franchisees to have their employees and independent contractors sign an acknowledgment form that explains the franchise relationship. This form notifies the employee or independent contractor that the franchisee is their sole employer. Any direction franchisees receive from Beverly Anns Cookie regarding employment or engagement policies should be considered examples, and franchisees are responsible for establishing and implementing their own policies in consultation with local legal counsel competent in employment law.
The employees hired by the franchisee are the franchisee's alone and will not be considered employees of Beverly Anns Cookie for any purpose. This includes mandated or other insurance coverage, tax, contributions, or requirements pertaining to withholdings levied or fixed by any city, state, or federal governmental agency. The franchisee must inform each of their employees that they alone are the employer and that Beverly Anns Cookie is not. Both the franchisee and Beverly Anns Cookie will file their own tax, regulatory, and payroll reports and be responsible for all employee benefits and workers' compensation payments with respect to their respective employees and operations. They will indemnify one another from any liability of any nature whatsoever by virtue thereof.