The Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals is looking into how an autistic prep-cook’s paychecks fell through the cracks after he worked hundreds of hours at a local restaurant.
“Right now, we are circling back to talk to the parents and to RHD,” Williams said. “We need to also understand what kind of payment is going to be made to him [by the restaurant].”
Dyl’s parents told Target 12 their son worked for free in a training program at the restaurant for about a year, until August 2014, when he was told he would be hired. The Dyls filled out direct deposit and IRS forms for Caleb.
When nothing was deposited into his account, Bob Dyl said restaurant personnel told him the paperwork was misplaced. “So, we filled it out again around November,” he said.
Still, no check – and that went on for months.
“It wasn’t about money for him, though,” Dyl said. “He liked working there. So we went to RHD a number of times and expected the problem to be taken care of.”
The Dyls say their 21-year-old son worked four-hour shifts about three days a week until he was transferred from the youth program into the adult program. That took several weeks, but he was back in the kitchen of the Middletown restaurant by last June.
By July, without any paycheck deposits, the Dyls pulled Caleb from the job.
Eleanor Clancy, a New England regional director of operations for the Applebee’s chain, said management at the Middletown restaurant was not aware of the problem until a phone call from Target 12. According to Clancy, the restaurant will be mailing Caleb a check for 166 hours of work at a minimum wage rate of $9 an hour.
“His job coach was there four weeks in November 2014 and seven weeks in June and July of 2015,” Clancy said, adding it still wasn’t an excuse for Dyl not getting paid.
