Bengies Drive In
Business, Entertainment

Bengies Drive-In Theatre faces blowback after posting ‘outdated’ conditions of employment

Posted on by Chris Montcalmo

UPDATE: Bengies has responded to the recent criticism and announced an upcoming change in ownership – details here.

Original story below…

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MIDDLE RIVER, MD—A famous drive-in located in Middle River got a little more famous this week, although perhaps not for the reasons they would like.

It seems Bengie’s Drive-In Theatre is hiring, and some residents took exception to the “conditions of employment” that the company posted online.

The company has since taken down the “conditions,” but they’ve been re-posted by Turnbull Brockmeyer Law Group and have since gone viral on Reddit.

Baltimore Fishbowl reports that some of the posted rules for employees included:

  • Employees must give 17 days written notice, and get it approved by management, before taking time off from work.
  • Employees must be reachable by phone on short notice.
  • Employees are allowed to attend movies for free, but could be “drafted” to work if they are needed, according to the policy.
  • Employees are prohibited from having “body piercing adornments,” including wearing more than one earring in each ear. They must also cover tattoos, and “wild” hair colors may be deemed inappropriate.
  • Employees may not to wear Bengies attire in any Royal Farms store.

According to Baltimore Fishbowl:

In 2010, Bengies’ owner D. Edward Vogel filed a lawsuit against Royal Farms, arguing that light pollution from a neighboring Royal Farms store negatively impacted his business.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court jury initially awarded the Bengies owner $838,000 as part of that lawsuit, but the ruling was later overturned in the Maryland Court of Appeals, the Baltimore Sun reported.

A recently-created Change.org petition urges residents to boycott Bengie’s until they revise their conditions.

It is unclear as to whether the terms violate any labor laws, however Turnbull Brockmeyer Law Group points out that Maryland minimum wage and overtime laws don’t seem to apply to drive-in theaters.

The Airquote Law Podcast even dedicated a recent episode to the drive-in theater’s employment rules.

Bengie’s has since taken down the “conditions of employment” document acknowledging that they are “outdated.”

The full conditions of employment along with reactions from Twitter can be viewed below.




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