Pizza Hut has offered to rehire a manager who was fired for refusing to open the restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. Tony Rohr, 28, had refused to open the store located in Elkhart, Indiana on Thanksgiving Day and was consequently told to write a letter of resignation. Instead, he chose to write a letter explaining why he thought the store should remain closed on Thanksgiving Day.
“Why can’t we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees and they can have the day off?” said Rohr. He continued by saying, “Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days that they’re closed in the whole year. And they’re the only two days that those people are guaranteed to have off to spend with their families.”
Rohr says he was fired shortly after he wrote the letter in which he criticized the company’s policy.
“I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company,” he wrote. “I hope you realize that it is the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.”
However, the local franchise disputed Rohr’s claim that he was fired. Instead, they said he quit. Pizza Hut’s corporate office later issued a statement on its website saying that the franchise “made a serious error in judgment, one which we hope to help remedy.” The corporate office went on to state that Rohr should be reinstated because Pizza hut “fully respect an employee’s right to not work on a holiday.”
“As a result, we strongly recommended that the local franchisee reinstate the store manager and they have agreed. We look forward to them welcoming Tony back to the team.” concluded the statement.
But Rohr, who had worked there for 10 years and manages about 15 employees, said Thursday that he is not sure whether he wanted his job back at this time. “That’s something I can’t decide right away,” he told CNN.
(main image via Wikipedia)