Norwalk man alleges discrimination in workplace spat
NAACP calls out restaurant on handling of situation
NORWALK — Sean Cannon was closing in on his three-year work anniversary at Bertucci’s in Darien.
He started as a dishwasher, but learned how to make dough and worked his way up through the restaurant. It was the longest he’d ever worked at one place.
“I’m finally on track and found a job that I kept consistently,” Cannon said Wednesday afternoon, just hours after he said he was terminated as a result of a workplace confrontation in which he claims he was physically threatened and called a racial slur — something that has caused the local NAACP chapter to take up his cause.
“I go to work and I get sent out on a delivery,” Cannon said , recalling the events of Oct. 19, the day he said ultimately led to his firing. “Before I left on the delivery, I have a tool that I use to make dough with. It’s called the dough knife. Before I left on the delivery, I left it where I know I can get it when I come back. I come back and it was missing.”
Cannon, a 41-year-old Norwalk resident, had had prior problems with a pizza maker who he described as a Spanish-speaking guy who had been employed at Bertucci’s at least since Cannon started. Several months ago, both men were written up after an exchange in which they threw out each other’s food. They were instructed to stay away from each other, despite overlapping shifts, and until last Friday, they did.
When Cannon returned from his delivery, the dough knife was not where he left it. It was in the work space of the pizza maker with whom he’d had issues.
According to Cannon, he went to reclaim the knife, and the man began to curse at him. The spat continued in the kitchen, at which point Cannon used a curse word and said, “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again.”
Cannon said the pizza maker responded by calling him the “N” word.
Cannon said he brought the exchange to the attention of his managers, who called both men to a back office.
“He tells (one of ) the managers in Spanish, holding his fist up, that if I speak to him, he’s going to punch me in the face,” Cannon said.
The pair was again written up and instructed to stay away from each other, Cannon said, who clocked out early and went home. He returned for his Saturday shift, but called out Monday and Tuesday, shifts that he had in common with the man, telling the restaurant’s general manager that he feared for his safety at work.
Cannon filed a report at Darien Police headquarters on Monday and was interviewed. According to the police report, the man who Cannon argued with admitted to using the racial slur, but because the origin of the altercation did not appear to “occur because of a bias against a protective class,” it was not handled as a hate crime, Capt. Don Anderson said.
Cannon contacted the Norwalk branch of the NAACP on Tuesday.
After speaking with Cannon, the chapter’s first vice president, Andre Williams, called Bertucci’s and said he was promised by the general manager, as well as one of the two managers initially involved in the incident, that they would not take retaliatory action against Cannon for missing work and contacting the NAACP.
Cannon said he showed up Wednesday morning and was fired.
“I didn’t even punch in,” Cannon said. He said the general manager cited both write-ups, as well as a rumor that Cannon planned to violently retaliate against the man — which Cannon denies — as justification.
NAACP chapter President Brenda Penn-Williams also contacted the restaurant and was referred to the human resources department. She said she wants both the managers from that night, as well at Bertucci’s general manager, fired for their handling of the situation and wants the staff to undergo racial sensitivity training to prevent further incidents.
“This racism has to stop. Bertucci’s responsibility was, as soon as that guy called him the N-word, he should have been fired. He admitted that he did it. He should have been fired,” Penn-Williams said.
Bertucci’s Chief People Officer Christine Moscaritolo said Wednesday night that after reviewing the incident, the restaurant made the decision to fire both employees.
“As a company we take this very seriously,” Moscaritolo said. “We basically have a zero tolerance policy for any discriminatory or violent behavior.”
Moscaritolo said the chain would start to have more conversations with their employees about conduct and is planning sensitivity training.