Kraft Heinz employees get day off after Super Bowl

PITTSBURGH — Kraft Heinz says the Monday after the Super Bowl will be a day off for its salaried employees, and it has launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to make the day — dubbed “Smunday” — a national holiday.

The food producing giant is co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, neither of which has a team in the game Feb. 5.

The company has started a Change.org petition and launched a website, www.smunday.org. If enough signatures are collected, Kraft Heinz says it will send the petition to Congress “in the hopes of making this dream a reality.”

The day off for employees stands whether or not the petition succeeds. The petition claims more than 16 million people call in sick or miss work the day after the game.

The company says the decision impacts “thousands of employees” but wasn’t more specific.