Waitress Fired After Calling Off Work For Flood Cleanup

ROSS TOWNSHIP, PA - A Ross restaurant fired a waitress last weekend after she said she could not work because she was cleaning up her Millvale residence that had been damaged by flooding.

Kretzler’s Tavern on Babcock Boulevard fired Nichole Parks even after she texted the bar’s co-owner saying she needed time off to snake her drains and attempt to salvage some of her children’s clothing, WTAE-TV reported.

Park’s mother, Lisa Russell, posted screen captures of the text exchange between her daughter and the co-owner on Facebook over the weekend, which prompted Kretzler’s to post this message on its own Facebook page Tuesday:

"Many of you have seen a post shared on Facebook in the past couple of days about an employee that was terminated. The way it was handled by one of our co-owners was not appropriate and we sincerely apologize for the poor communication and lack of consideration. New processes are currently being implemented to ensure that this does not happen again.

The message continued: “We understand that many people are upset by how things happened and we hope that going forward we can regain the community's support. We will have a donation box setup behind the bar and we will be matching the sum of all donations up to $500 until July 15th to the Millvale flood cleanup GoFundMe.”

Many responses to that post were critical of Kretzler’s, particularly since no mention was made of giving Parks her job back.

“Shame on you guys,” one woman wrote. “You wanted her to help you clean up from the same flood that she was at her house trying to clean up from. What's the matter with you?”

Kretzler's Tavern was established in 1951. Originally a popular neighborhood bar, Kretzler's grew into a
full-service restaurant and banquet facility in 1988.

Photo via Google Maps.

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