She didn't order the rudeness.
The lawyer for a California woman who said a Subway employee scrawled humiliating words on her lunch is still waiting for the sandwich giant to institute anti-discrimination training. The customer has threatened to sue unless Subway organizes the trainings for employees.
Allison Brown, 45, ordered a 6-inch tuna sub and two pizza-bread Flatizzas for her and her husband for lunch last month at a Subway in Vista, Calif. When she returned home with the food, she noticed the words "Big Mama" were handwritten on one of the pizza boxes. "I was devastated," she told area news outlet ABC10.
Image credit: ABC10.
Brown, a nursing assistant whom ABC10 described as "weight-conscious," confronted the Subway franchise owner, who apologized and told her the employee didn't know better, she relayed to the New York Daily News. Then the owner offered her $5,000 "to keep her quiet," her lawyer, Dan Gilleon, told The Huffington Post.
The response from Subway's headquarters hasn't satisfied Brown or her attorney.
"Subway World Headquarters has largely remained silent, except to point fingers back at the local store," Brown wrote in an email to HuffPost. "Their claim [that] they have no control over the local store's training of employees is contradicted by the massive control they exert over every aspect the local store's day to day operations. If Subway World Headquarters can dictate how the local store slices its bread, it can certainly require the employees to undergo anti-discrimination training."
Gilleon said if Subway didn't comply with the training request, he would file the suit for unfair business practices before May 1.
"My client knew this would get media attention, and although the 'unflattering' comments have continued with people posting comments throughout the world, she remains steadfast in her decision to speak out against Subway's discriminatory treatment," Gilleon told HuffPost.
Subway provided the following comment to HuffPost:
We agree that what a single employee at a San Diego franchise wrote on the customer's Flatizza box was insensitive and wrong. We have already followed up on this with the local store owner, who took immediate action to investigate, and we understand that the employee involved was terminated.
(Hat tip, Consumerist)