A Long Island Carvel manager says he was fired for refusing to receive a $ 10 bill from a customer who was sweating and coughing and who was not wearing a mask.
“It is not right that I can be fired for following the rules,” manager Thomas DeSarle told the media at a press conference on Monday. “They fire you for not following the rules. You know, it just doesn’t make sense. “
The 40-year-old Glen Cove man said on the night of July 11 that a customer entered the store profusely sweating and coughing and was not wearing a mask, despite the signs on the store door saying that masks and social distancing are mandatory.
DeSarle saw the customer cough “in all his hands” and said he expected the man to pay with a credit card because there would be no contact or risk of germs.
“I heard the bell ring [and] it came out to a customer who was coughing very hard, ”said DeSarle. “It is not a cough just to clear the throat, but a cough that actually sounded sick.”
“I asked him sir, ‘Do you have a mask?’ He said no, we offered him a mask, and he just kept giving the order that he wanted a little vanilla ice cream, “DeSarle continued.
And instead of paying with a credit card like DeSarle expected him to, “It’s that nasty wet $ 10 bill that he pulled out. What was he supposed to do?” DeSarle said.
His attorney noted that the client was handling the invoice with the same hand that he was coughing.
“I said, ‘Sorry sir, I can’t take it.’ I said, ‘You need to pay by credit card, or we can’t serve you,'” DeSarle said.
“He kept trying to give me the money. [He] he kept saying ‘take my money, take my money’ “.
DeSarle said he was scared for his health after the man coughed and that he hadn’t taken the wet bill in normal times, much less during the coronary virus pandemic.
“I don’t know how this disease works. I have no idea, ”said the manager.
DeSarle spoke to co-owner Annie Chen again to tell her she wouldn’t take the wet money, but Chen ended up serving the customer and sending DeSarle home, he said.
The couple fixed things the next day, but DeSarle told Chen that if a similar situation arose, it would not serve the client, prompting her to fire him on Monday, July 13, he said.
“They told me that if I can’t serve customers in the store without masks, I can’t work here anymore,” said DeSarle.
“[Chen has] has been allowing customers in the store for the past two weeks without masks, “DeSarle said, adding that most customers without masks would take the masks the store offered them and some simply walked away.
People must wear face masks in public places when they cannot socially distance themselves under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order.
DeSarle had been working 50 hours a week since the business reopened in the wake of the pandemic.
“It’s about employees being comfortable at work, and employers understanding that earnings should never come before employee safety,” DeSarle’s attorney Jon Bell told the media, noting who are considering filing a lawsuit against the company.
Chen deferred the comment to the corporate office. Corporate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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