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assistant suspended for refusing to serve EDL leader
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Full story can be found here
A shop assistant, working in Selfridges, has been suspended due to the fact that he refused to serve a member of the English Defence League and his friend.
Do you think it was right that he was suspended? Or was he right in standing up for his own views?
When is it okay to break the rules if it means standing up for something you believe in?
A shop assistant, working in Selfridges, has been suspended due to the fact that he refused to serve a member of the English Defence League and his friend.
Do you think it was right that he was suspended? Or was he right in standing up for his own views?
When is it okay to break the rules if it means standing up for something you believe in?
0
Comments
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24145261
He's employed to do a job, not operate his own boycott policy, though the company seem to have acted sensibly and decided that as it was a one-off and he accepts he was wrong to have him back at work
Shame they gave the little shit a slap up dinner. I hope the chef came in his custard.
If he really didn't want to serve him, I'd have thought a member of staff in a "high end" establishment would have had the sense to be discreet. Whatever happened to "Sorry sir, I'm currently busy with another matter, if you wait just a moment I will find someone who can serve you".
As odious as Tommy Robinson may be, he and his friend were still paying customers, and the old adage has always been that the customer is always right. That member of staff could have acted a whole lot more professionally than he actually did, and if he had done so Selfridges wouldn't have the PR nightmare it has on its hands right now. And it wouldn't have had to comp the twat an £80 meal.
I wouldn't trust "Paul Harris" to tell me the time.
Not much of story really.
Forget the fuck off part, the member of staff should have been more professional. As Skive said, he was disciplined, kept his job and old Tommy got an expensive apology.
If you're going to work in a customer service role, you can't pick and choose who you serve.
Yes you can, witness the number of fat yanks in tracksuits who bleat in the Evening Standard that Harrods wouldn't let them in.
It's a shame Selfridges, which tries to pretend it is just as exclusive, didn't think to operate the same policy.
I can't imagine Liberty grovelling to a fraudster football hooligan, can you?
If he'd been refused entry because he failed to adhere to a dress code, that would be a different story. I agree with what most people say here. Someone's political views should have nothing to do with whether you'll serve them in a shop or not, especially if you don't own the shop. If we were talking about a religious or philosophical belief, what he did would actually be illegal. For some reason that's a mystery to me, they are treated differently to political beliefs. But imagine if nurses started to treat people differently if they were members of the Tory party, because they disagreed with their healthcare policies.
Incidentally, it's worth pointing out that he didn't actually refuse to serve the EDL bloke himself, he refused to serve someone else on the grounds that he was with the EDL bloke.
Next thing you know, Labour supporters may be shunned by Tory staff and vice versa etc.
As it happened, it was all resolved satisfactorily.