A BrewDog bar in Indianapolis came under fire on 9 March, as former employees came forward to make the allegations about the sacking of staff.
One employee tweeted to say that those sacked 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."
https://twitter.com/himbocity/status/1369095313018023937
The Scottish company was founded in 2007 and is currently headquartered in Ellon for UK operations and Ohio in America.
Speaking to Columbus Business First, who broke the story, BrewDog said that they believe that those sacked were done so because of performance based issues, but the "manner in which these dismissals were handled was not aligned with our company values or internal processes."
In an update today, this statement also reveals that the person who instructed the dismissals is no longer with the business.
Jason Block, CEO of Brewdog USA issued a statement saying: "These claims of discrimination really hit us hard.
"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 the UK the brand are preparing to re-open their bars, with a pre-booking system now in place.
