ST. PAUL, Minn. - Chipotle is reconsidering its decision to fire a St. Paul restaurant manager for not serving five black men and asking them to prove they could pay before taking their order.
Employees accused the men of being repeat dine-and-dashers. One of the men, 21-year-old Masud Ali, posted a video of the incident on Twitter, alleging that he and his friends were subjected to racial stereotyping.
Chipotle fired the restaurant's manager after the online backlash.
Now the company says they've reconsidered that move.
Several tweets posted on Ali's account between 2014 and 2016 apparently include jokes about dining and dashing. Those tweets have since been deleted.
A Chipotle spokesman says the company was aware of the tweets when it decided to fire the manager. However, they have reconsidered their decision to fire the employee -- and now, are offering the woman her job back.
"We have spent the last few days reviewing the evidence available to us regarding the incident in St. Paul, MN. Based on our review, we have offered our manager her job back. While our normal protocol was not followed serving these customers, we publicly apologize to our manager for being put in this position. We will work to continue to ensure that we support a respectful workplace for our employees and our customers alike," the company said in a statement. "Our policy is to treat our customers and employees fairly and with respect at all times and under any circumstances. We will work with all our restaurant teams to ensure they are prepared to handle situations of this kind and know they have our full support. We are committed to doing the right thing and acting in a manner consistent with a thoughtful, fact-driven approach."
Ali didn't respond to requests for comment.