Chipotle reverses policy, says workers can order chicken again

Chipotle restaurant workers fill orders for customers on the day that the company announced it will only use non-GMO ingredients in its food on April 27, 2015 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

(NewsNation) — Popular burrito and bowl chain Chipotle has reversed course and says employees can now order chicken once again after Bloomberg reported that workers had been told to skip the protein amid surging customer demand.

In a company email sent to employees last week, workers were told not to add chicken to their personal meals to preserve the supply for customers, according to Bloomberg.

Store managers were reportedly told not to order their work meals with chicken or Chicken al Pastor and to ask other staff to do the same.

On Thursday, Laurie Schalow, the Mexican chain's chief corporate affairs and food safety officer, told the Associated Press that the directive has been rescinded and employees can return to ordering chicken with their meals.

"We are not experiencing outages of chicken in our restaurants," Schalow said in a statement. "Last week we temporarily asked employees to select non-chicken options for their employee meals to maintain supply for our guests based on our strong sales, but employees are now free to select chicken in their meals as normal."

The guidance had also applied to white-collar staff at Chipotle offices, who were told they "should not" order chicken for themselves and informed them that the popular option wouldn't be included in their free Monday lunches, Bloomberg said.

The policy upset some employees who told Bloomberg managers had threatened to discipline workers who got chicken during their lunch breaks. In some cases, managers had even thrown out employees' chicken meals, according to workers at Chipotle's only unionized U.S. store in Michigan.

During the company's quarterly earnings call Wednesday, executives highlighted the success of Chicken al Pastor, calling it one of the most requested new menu items.

Data from Placer.ai showed that Chipotle visits surged 10% in the first quarter compared to the year prior, outpacing the 4% growth across the fast-casual segment.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the company's updated statement as of Thursday afternoon.