DEL REY OAKS — Safeway has reinstated Ryan Young, the meat clerk who was suspended without pay for about a month after he intervened in a domestic disturbance at the grocery chain’s Del Rey Oaks store near Monterey.

The company gave Young his job back plus back pay and benefits on Wednesday, a day after Young’s union, UFCW Local 5, met with Safeway officials to discuss the case.

Ron Lind, president of UFCW Local 5, said Young will begin work at a different Safeway store just as close to his home in Marina: “He’ll be back to work as soon as possible.” In the Tuesday meeting at Safeway’s headquarters, Lind said, Young had a chance to explain his side of the story.

“They have policies on workplace violence and what employees are expected to do,” Lind said. “Safeway agreed with us that a suspension wasn’t warranted.” Young had been suspended without pay after he struck a customer who was beating his pregnant girlfriend near the meat counter at the store on April 21.

After Young was interviewed on CNN and his story ricocheted around the country, Safeway faced picketers at the store, as well as a public furor on social media.

Pleasanton-based Safeway, the second-largest U.S. grocery chain, has tried to clarify that it wasn’t Young’s decision to come to the woman’s defense, but his actions after the initial interaction that triggered a thorough investigation.

The store’s security camera footage shows that Young pushed the man, then struck him after they exchanged words, said Del Rey Police Chief Ron Langford in an interview last week.

Langford personally commended Young and his actions in a letter to Safeway soon after the incident.

“We don’t condone people getting involved, but we take it on a case-by-case basis,” Langford said. “Somebody had to do something.”

The man Young struck, Quyen Van Tran, who was arrested the day of the altercation on April 21, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery last Friday and was sentenced to three years probation and time served in jail. He was also ordered to attend a 52-week domestic violence class and stay away from his victim.

The story touched a nerve, and public anger over Young’s unpaid suspension quickly festered.

A Change.org petition demanding that Safeway reinstate Young’s job with back pay drew more than 180,000 signatures.

Pledges to boycott Safeway and offers to help Young financially poured in. A Salinas businessman, John Wolf, CEO of Wolf Fitness Systems, offered to hold a fundraiser for Young and his wife. A separate fund Wolf set up to raise money for Young had pulled in $800.

Jennie Tillman, a human resources coordinator in Austin, Texas, said a friend told her about the story, and then she watched Young’s CNN interview. It reminded her of a similar episode a few years ago in an Austin suburb, when a Randall’s grocery store employee chased a purse snatcher at the store where he worked. He was fired by the supermarket chain, whose parent company is Safeway.

“Our community was shocked by the outcome,” Tillman said in an email.

Kate Moser can be reached at 646-4487 or kmoser@montereyherald.com.