
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407280057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PIZZA HUT PRESIDENT GETS GRILLED

Pizza Hut can't afford to pay a share of its American workers' health insurance, even though it pays for workers' insurance abroad, the company's top executive said Friday.

Last week, Democratic lawmakers accused Pizza Hut and McDonald's of hypocrisy for aggressively opposing an employer mandate in the United States while paying workers' insurance in other countries where it does booming business.

Allan Huston, president of chief executive officer of Wichita, Kan.-based Pizza Hut, said that was untrue.

``In markets with burdensome social costs, Pizza Hut has been unable to develop the kind of business that generates the new jobs and opportunities we have enjoyed in the United States,'' he told the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's chairman, argued that point heatedly, often raising his voice.

``Why should you freeload on others that provide insurance? Why does Pizza Hut freeload when others pay for your employees health care costs?'' he asked.

He called the difference in policies abroad ``an unacceptable double standard.''

Huston said Pizza Hut has created 41,000 new jobs and 1,700 new restaurants in America over the past five years. In Germany, he says, the 65 restaurants have been unprofitable for 10 of the past 11 years, despite increased revenues.

by CNB