Pizza Hut manager fired for refusing to open on Thanksgiving gets his job back

Tony Rohr had worked at the Elkhart, Indiana nearly 10 years when he was fired last week for refusing to open on the holiday

Rohr, who worked his way to manager after starting as a cook, created a stir when he wrote a defiant letter denouncing the company instead of resigning as was requested

Pizza Hut's corporate owners got wind of the franchise's decision and 'strongly requested' Rohr's job be reinstated

The manager of an Indiana Pizza Hut fired for refusing to open his restaurant on Thanksgiving has now been offered his job back.



Tony Rohr worked at the Elkhart Pizza Hut for nearly ten years, climbing the ladder from cook to general manager, before getting fired last week.



Rohr wrote a defiant note to his employer instead of the letter of resignation they’d requested.

Instead of even more scorn, the heartfelt letter won him praise from across the country and now it's won him his job back.

After 10 years: Indiana Pizza Hut manager Tony Rohr refused last week to open his restaurant on Thanksgiving and was fired

‘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 recalled thinking after he was told he and his workers had to work the holiday when so many eat at home with loved ones.

He said he refused not for himself, but for his employees.



‘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,’ he told WSBT.

For his employees: The owners of the Elkhart, Indiana Pizza Hut first asked Rohr to resign, but instead he shot off a list of reasons he found the decision unfair

'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 wondered

At first, Rohr says he wasn’t fired, but asked to resign from the Pizza Hut, which is run by a franchisee and not directly by Pizza Hut.



Instead of a letter of resignation, Rohr shot of a missive detailing all the reasons he found the requirement unfair.



‘I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company,’ he wrote. ‘I hope you realize that it is the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.’



He says he was then fired, but the local franchise told WSBT Rohr quit.

Popular: Rohr's letter won him praise from people all over after news spread he was fired

When Pizza Hut's corporate offices got wind of the controversy, they moved quickly. 'We strongly recommended that the local franchisee reinstate the store manager,' they said in a statement

Regardless of which occurred, something unexpected definitely happened thereafter. Coverage of Rohr’s situation won him praise from across the country from Americans who sympathized with his cause.



It also won him the sympathy of the Pizza Hut corporate big wigs.



According to CNN, officials there said the franchisees ‘made a serious error in judgment, one which we hope to help remedy.’



Remedy it they did. Rohr has now been offered his job 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,’ reads a statement on the corporate office website.



‘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,’ it reads.



Rohr, who’s likely spending the holiday with family, has not commented on whether he accept the offer.