Trending goto resto looking into incident involving employee who was allegedly fired for feeding strays
The Quezon City restaurant, which drew criticisms online after its five-year employee was allegedly terminated for giving food to stray animals, said it's "deeply saddened" by what happened and that it's reviewing the actions of its manpower provider.
"We are deeply saddened by the recent incident involving one of the staff at our Scout Borromeo branch, whose kindness towards stray animals has touched many hearts," Goto Tendon said in a statement posted as a photo on Facebook on Sept. 30.
The goto spot assured the public that they are "taking this matter seriously and have been looking into what happened, including reviewing the actions taken by our manpower provider and his employer, Bestoptions Assistance Inc."
They also noted that their commitment "is to ensure that our practices reflect our values of empathy, kindness, and responsibility."
"While we support our staff's personal causes, we also continuously strive to enforce policies and processes that ensure a positive experience at our branches," they continued. "We believe it is possible to strike a careful balance between humaneness and our professional obligation to our customers."
In the caption of their post, Goto Tendon said it's the "only statement" they have issued, "and any other posts claiming to be from us or our CEO are misinformation."
Content creator Baldawgs (Vhal Sardia) made the rounds online last weekend when he shared on Facebook how he was supposedly fired from Goto Tendon, his employer of five years, over his posts about helping and feeding strays around their stores.
"Ito rin ang dahilan upang ireport ako ng aking supervisor sa aking opisina na nagdulot ng aking pagkatanggal," Sardia said. "Hindi ko po kasi napigilan na sila ay bigyan ng pagkain kaya't madalas ang ginagawa ko ang pagpapakain sa kanila off duty or break time ko."
In the comments section of his post, Sardia said the company fired him for "disrespect and [sanitation]" reasons and asked him to make a handwritten explanation letter.
Though the company's move hurt him, Sardia said he has no regrets about helping the strays.
Social media users empathized with Sardia. While others understood the company's sanitation policy, others noted that it wasn't a "valid" reason for Sardia to be easily terminated from work.