Burger King responds after employee who ran entire restaurant on her own for 12 hours is fired

Burger King has responded after one of its employees who went viral for running an entire branch of the fast food chain by herself got fired.

Nykia Hamilton went big on social media after being filmed working alone in a Burger King in Columbia, South Carolina, as customers were astonished and impressed in equal measure that she was 'doing everything by herself'.

The woman was cooking everyone's food, taking all the orders, manning the drive-thru and cleaning up without help from anyone else.

The 25-year-old was hailed for her efforts, but now it turns out she no longer works for Burger King as Nykia said she was sacked for being late 'because of my kids'.

"At the end of the day, I do it for them. I've got three kids to take care of, I'm a single mother. I still got to feed them, and I've got a child about to go to school. You got to do what you got to do," the mother-of-three said.

Since being sacked she's been trying to make a go of it in comedy, while a GoFundMe for Nykia has raised over $90,000 to help support her family since the 25-year-old lost her job.

Now Burger King has responded, telling the New York Post in a statement that the decision on hiring and firing employees was up to the person running the franchise.

A spokesperson for Burger King said: "Terminations are the decision of the franchisees who own and operate the BK restaurant.

"In this situation, the franchisee confirmed that the individual involved is no longer employed due to repeated attendance issues."

However, the fast food giant expressed dismay that one of its franchises was in such a state that one person was having to run it by themselves.

The spokesperson added: "No team member should ever be left to run a restaurant alone, even for a short period of time.

"That's not how we operate and we're disappointed that our policy, which required more than one team member to work per shift, wasn't followed.

"While we can't share more on individual personnel matters, we're focused on making sure every restaurant, whether company or franchise-owned has the staffing and support needed to take care of our team members and deliver the kind of experience our guests expect."

Nykia said she had been late due to her children as Burger King 'don’t pay for no babysitter' and 'my kids come first'.

She added that she'd seen her son comment on a video of her working saying 'I know my mama love me', which made her emotional.