(CNN) – Shortly after a manager announced he was fired for refusing to open on Thanksgiving Day, Pizza Hut is offering him his job back.
Tony Rohr has worked at the franchise in Elkhart, Indiana, for more than 10 years.
When he refused to open on Thanksgiving Day this year, he says, he was told to write a letter of resignation.
Instead, he wrote one explaining why the store should remain closed.
“I said why can’t we be the company that stands up and says we care about your employees and you can have the day off,” Rohr told CNN affiliate WSBT on Wednesday. “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 to spend with their families.”
Rohr told the affiliate he refused to quit and detailed his frustration in the letter.
“I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company,” he says he wrote. “I hope you realize that it is the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.”
He was fired shortly after, he says.
The local franchise told the affiliate that he was not fired, but he quit. Pizza Hut’s corporate office told CNN the franchise “made a serious error in judgment, one which we hope to help remedy.”
It sent CNN a statement that said the store has agreed to hire him back.
“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,” the corporate office said in a statement. “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.”
No word on whether Rohr will take his job back.
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