Hy-Vee rehires worker terminated for having a mustache

Bob Dentlinger went back to work Wednesday at the Boone Hy-Vee, mustache and all.

Dentlinger was fired and then rehired this week after the store director terminated the longtime employee for not shaving off the mustache he has sported for 45 years.

Hy-Vee officials said in a statement that they’ve apologized to Dentlinger and offered to rehire him.

Dentlinger said he was fired after a new store director said a new store handbook called for employees to have no facial hair. Everyone else in the store with facial hair complied, but Dentlinger said the request did not seem fair. He refused to get rid of his mustache and was terminated Feb. 23.

“The corporate handbook, the one I signed for and agreed to five years ago, allowed facial hair as long as it was neat and trimmed,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

Dentlinger, who had a double lung transplant six years ago, said he's glad he took a stand. "This wasn't just for me," he said.

When he returned Wednesday to work, "there was a lot of stubble in the store," he said, referring to other workers who had shaved to save their jobs.

Dentlinger, 64, works part-time at Hy-Vee doing deliveries, as a cashier, as a clerk at the courtesy desk or "wherever they need me."

Hy-Vee’s statement said the store director “misinterpreted our standard operating procedures for food safety guidelines and was trying to do what she felt was in the best interest of our customers.”

The company said it is reviewing whether a company-wide policy regarding facial hair should be adopted.