BrewDog has apologized to the four LGBTQ employees it terminated last week from its Indianapolis taproom, but said an external HR investigation found “no evidence of discrimination” in their firings, according to a statment from BrewDog USA CEO Jason Block.
The Scottish craft beer maker admitted there were “inconsistencies” in the processing of the terminations, which was among the findings from Columbus, Ohio-based Centric’s investigation.
“To the team members impacted, we apologize for the pain you’re experiencing,” Block wrote. “By not following our own policies and practices, we created a situation where you felt you were being judged based on your identities.”
In his statement, Block reiterated that the employees were terminated for performance issues. However, none of the affected workers were ever written up for poor performance, former employee Jordan Dalton wrote on Twitter last week. BrewDog declined to share details about the alleged performance infractions.
The company’s policy on employee feedback dictates that “team members should be informed, and that feedback should be documented and filed with human resources,” Block told Brewbound in a statement. This policy was not consistently carried out for the four affected employees.
“At times, feedback was communicated,” Block said. “In other instances they did not receive feedback, they should have.”
In a statement last week, the four former employees disputed BrewDog’s claim that they were not meeting performance expectations.
After BrewDog fired 4 LGBT staff members, 2 of us transgender in the span of an hour, they told us this was due to the bar needing a “culture change.” Now their story keeps changing. This is a multi million dollar corporation abusing at-will employment laws to fire LGBT people. pic.twitter.com/5XfZ4Xbn0z
— jorde (@himbocity) March 11, 2021
“We are awaiting proof from HR that these alleged performance issues were documented,” they wrote. “However, it will never come, because they are outright lies meant to silence us.”
BrewDog said it has invited the four dismissed LGBTQ employees to meet with Block “with their legal counsel paid for by us should they request it, to discuss what happened, and address any remaining questions.”
The Indianapolis taproom has been closed since December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is slated to reopen March 26. During the temporary closure, the former general manager left and a new one was hired. The new general manager called all four dismissed employees to say they were “all being fired because they wanted a change in culture at BrewDog,” former employee Erica O’Neill told WISH-TV News 8.
Block said that if a reference to a “culture change” was made in the terminations, then “it was not sanctioned” by the company.
In addition to the execution of the terminations not aligning with policy, Centric also found that planning of the dismissals was not up to company standards.
“The investigation uncovered inconsistencies in this process — such as including human resources and management in the decision-making process around terminations, as we require,” Block said.
BrewDog fired the employee who approved the terminations last week.
Moving forward, the company will host a town hall with remaining Indianapolis staff to answer questions and solicit “input on how we might improve our culture there.” BrewDog USA will also train managers on termination policies and onboarding, add diversity, equity and inclusion training to employee onboarding and will offer resources for its team to “address workplace culture.”