An employee of Quality Foods who wore an orange shirt to work says he was sent home for being out of uniform. He was participating in Orange Shirt Day, an event to raise awareness of the Canadian residential school system.
Edwin Frommelt B次元官网网址� who is First Nations and has family members who attended residential schools B次元官网网址� arrived for his scheduled shift at the View Royal location of Quality Foods on Sept. 30 wearing an orange shirt.
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Frommelt says he was approached by the storeB次元官网网址檚 assistant manager and told to change into his uniform B次元官网网址� a collared shirt and tie B次元官网网址� or go home. Since he arrived with only the clothes he was wearing, he chose to go home.
B次元官网网址淚 wanted to avoid escalating conflict,B次元官网网址� he said, so he left in order to avoid being reprimanded.
Quality Foods released a Facebook statement Monday apologizing for the incident.
A sentence in the Facebook post stated, B次元官网网址淐ould we have handled your situation better? Absolutely. And for that we are very, very sorry.B次元官网网址�
In an interview Tuesday, Lyall Woznesensky, who works in professional development for the Island-based grocer, said the Quality Foods policy for altering a staff uniform in any way is to provide a request prior to the day.
B次元官网网址淣ot all the causes are of a degree of what people would share on that day,B次元官网网址� he said, adding he was not aware of Orange Shirt Day prior to the Sept. 30 incident.
He plans to travel to the View Royal store tomorrow to speak with the management team and to personally apologize to Frommelt.
Frommelt says he wasnB次元官网网址檛 aware of the policy, and said other employees have worn coloured shirts to mark similar days, as well as Halloween costumes and jerseys in memory of the Humboldt Broncos.
The point of going public with the incident, he said, was not to boycott the grocery store chain.
B次元官网网址淚 still want people to go to Quality Foods. IB次元官网网址檓 just trying to make sure this gets corrected and make reconciliation toward it.B次元官网网址�
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