Two Georgia women are accusing Lululemon of firing them for calling the police on three masked men who were pillaging and stealing from the store.
Video of the incident was shared online, showing the robbers at the Peachtree Corners store in metro Atlanta earlier this month. The men can be seen grabbing loads of athletic clothing while running through the front of the store before making their way outside and fleeing the scene.
One of the women, former assistant manager Jennifer Ferguson, can be heard yelling at the men, telling them to get out of the store.
According to the New York Post, this wasn’t the first time the store had been hit, as the looters had reportedly come nearly a dozen other times to ransack the store.
As the men grabbed clothes off the shelves, the retail worker could be heard telling them to “get out,” to which one of the thieves replied, “Chill, b–tch, shut your ass up.”
The video then shows the men loading up their getaway car as they take off. However, the video never once shows the workers getting physical with the thieves to stop them, something that has resulted in workers losing their jobs and being injured in other similar situations.
“We are not supposed to get in the way. You kind of clear a path for whatever they’re going to do,” Ferguson told 11Alive.
The woman instead contacted the Gwinnett Police Department to report the robbery. The police were able to track down the thieves, arrest them, and charge them with felony robbery.
But Ferguson says this isn’t what she’s been told to do.
“And then, after it’s over, you scan a QR code, and that’s that. We’ve been told not to put it in any notes because that might scare other people,” Ferguson told the media outlet. “We’re not supposed to call the police, not really supposed to talk about it.”
After contacting the authorities, Ferguson and the employee who filmed the robbery, Rachel Rogers, said they were openly questioned by a regional manager for their decision to call the police. After being questioned, they said they were fired from their positions at the store, The Post reported.
When the women asked why they were fired, they claimed that Lululemon didn’t give them “specific reasoning” for their immediate terminations other than that the company has a “no-tolerance policy.”
A spokesperson for Lululemon shared with The Post that the company has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to chasing or engaging with a thief physically.
“This also includes leaving the store to pursue a guest or gather additional information about the suspected or observed theft,” an excerpt states.
Instead, the company’s handbook says that employees are required to “Call 911 immediately after the suspects have left the store.”
According to the women, they followed the company’s rules as laid out.
A statement from Lululemon refutes the point from the two women, instead saying that they were fired for engaging with the robbers.
"The two employees at our Peachtree Corners location in Georgia were not terminated for calling the police. They were terminated for knowingly violating our zero-tolerance policy related to physically engaging with the perpetrators which put their lives and the safety of our guests and other employees at risk," the statement from the company says. "Employees are able and instructed to call 911 when needed, and that was not the cause of termination in this case. We are grateful no one was hurt during this altercation. At lululemon, our people’s safety is our number one priority, which includes an absolute zero-tolerance policy for our employees engaging with guests in a way that could put themselves, or others, in harm’s way. We have longstanding protocols in place to uphold a safe environment in our stores, and our view is that no amount of merchandise in a store is worth our educators putting themselves at risk. Our focus is on continuing to support our employees and creating a safe shopping environment for our guests, as well as continuing to collaborate with local partners and law enforcement to ensure our stores remain safe.”
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