Fallout Continues At BrewDog USA After LGBTQ Employees Are Fired

The fallout continues after four LGBTQ employees were fired at a BrewDog bar in Indianapolis, by a new manager who said he wanted a “change in culture.

Here’s the deal…

Earlier this week four former BrewDog employees ignited social media when they claimed that they were fired by a general manager they had never met before. and that those fired appeared to be exclusively female or LGBTQ staff members.

One employee tweeted that those let go were women, non-binary or transgender staff, writing…

 “Today my restaurant fired their woman and non-binary (me) staff, including two trans people. They recently replaced our woman gm and head chef with men and called all of this ‘a change in culture,”

“Not a single member of our male staff was fired yesterday. Our male GM, AGM, and sous chef were invited to HQ before the decision was made. my coworker was explicitly told by the new GM all ppl who “filled serving positions in the last few months” were fired, a complete lie.

“Not ONE non-male member of our diverse staff was invited for deliberations on our reopening. Of course it was decided there was a “culture problem” as soon as none of us were in the room.  @BrewDog is the furthest thing from a “revolutionary” “punk” “community run” bar.”

Speaking to Columbus Business First , BrewDog said that they believe that those sacked were done so because of performance based issues, but that the “manner in which these dismissals were handled was not aligned with our company values or internal processes.”

“These claims of discrimination really hit us hard.” CEO of BrewDog USA reportedly said in a statement:

“BrewDog does not tolerate any prejudice or inequality of any kind. We pride ourselves on an inclusive and diverse place of work, our whole brand is built on showing that business can be a force for good.

“We stand with you all on the criticisms of the way this has been handled. We will continue to listen, continue to learn and continue to focus on having a strong and positive impact in the world.”

In a statement on Twitter BrewDog USA detailed  that it was still investigating the claims, but an initial review had lead them to believe that the dismissal of the four team members was “based purely on performance.”

The business added that the person who had instructed the dismissals has now left the company, since the way they were handled did not align with BrewDog’s “company values or internal processes.”

But the reverberations continued when on March 15,  BrewDog USA CEO Jason Block, issued a statement apologizing to the four LGBTQ employees who had been terminated from the Indianapolis taproom, adding that although an independent HR investigation had found “no evidence of discrimination” in their firings, there were “inconsistencies” in how things were handled.