Tony Rohr, a Pizza Hut manager in Elkhart, Indiana, who worked there for years, was fired this month because he wouldn’t force employees to work on Thanksgiving.
The move to fire him triggered an online backlash over the past few days–with some saying they would boycott the chain.
According to WSTB, Rohr worked at the chain for 10 years and worked his way from being a cook to manager.
“I said, ‘Why can’t we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees, and they can have the day off?'” Rohr told WSTB. “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 and spend it with their families.”
The company said that he could sign a letter of resignation for not opening the restaurant.
“However, I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company.” He later wrote: “I hope you realize that it is the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.”
When the WSTB report was published, Rohr was unemployed and looking for work.
But Pizza Hut on Thursday said that it will rehire him.
“[W]e feel strongly that the situation involving our independent franchisee and the local store manager could and should have been avoided. We fully respect an employee’s right to not work on a holiday, which is why the vast majority of Pizza Huts in America are closed on Thanksgiving. 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,” the company said in an e-mail to the Huffington Post.
