McDonalds worker says she was fired after buying food for firefighters – Boss denies charge
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Our friends at Firefighters Worldwide caught this story early and it is now blowing up a bit around the nation and the world, causing some issues for McDonalds.
It centers on a 23-year-old single mom, Heather Levia, who is the mother of twins, worked two jobs and is putting herself through nursing school. One of those jobs, until last week, was as a manager of the morning shift at an Olean, New York McDonalds.
Levia saw a group of firefighters coming in from handling a house fire and decided to pay their $83 bill out of her own pocket. That wonderful gesture started a series of events that eventually found Levia being fired from the job she held for eight years (details in the video above and excerpts below).
Firefighters Worldwide is reporting this afternoo (Wednesday) there is more to Levia’s employement issues with the Olean McDonalds:
Levia was not satisfied with her current job at McDonald’s in the weeks prior to the incident. On January 29, Levia posted on her Facebook page that she may be looking for a new job. She posted “Listen all [expletive deleted] hit hit the fan today… I’m not putting up with [expletive deleted] … I need out of there before I end up getting fired.” In follow up comments, she stated her bosses didn’t care about employees and said “we have one chance before we lose our jobs.”
When a second department ordered $70 of food, Levia texted her boss to see if the company would pay the tab. But when her boss said no, Levia and other workers again picked up the bill.
After the firefighters found out that Levia had paid for the food herself, some firefighters called her boss and complained.
“You opened a whole bee’s nest,” she was told.
At her next shift she was fired. She says the reason given was she swore at a superior — something she denies.
“I did say this is ‘freaking’ ridiculous. But it was not implied to anybody,” she said.
Tom Meyers, the owner of the Olean McDonald’s, gave News 4 the following statement:“The Meyers Organization has always valued the employees who serve our customers every day. We likewise continue to be an ardent supporter of our police and fire departments, along with other first responders. They are always welcome in our restaurants, and we will continue to support them in the future.
“We are aware that certain allegations have been made concerning the reasons for Heather Levia’s termination. Out of respect for Ms. Levia and her privacy, it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on the reasons she is no longer employed by our organization. Still, it should be pointed out that the allegations are absolutely not true. We would never penalize an employee for showing appropriate gratitude for the work of our firefighters.”
