Stella’s fires regional manager, will create new HR department

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This article was published 14/12/2018 (1956 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stella’s regional manager Brad Burrows was officially fired from the Winnipeg restaurant chain Friday following a month-long investigation, according to an email sent by Stella’s owners to media Saturday afternoon.

Burrows joins former Stella’s CEO Grant Anderson, who was fired Dec. 5. Both men had been placed on indefinite leave from the local company in November, after former and current employees went public with allegations of misbehaviour, including sexual harassment, verbal abuse and poor labour practices.

Third-party human resources firm People First HR Services has completed its audit of Stella’s, the email from Stella’s owners Tore Sohlberg and Lehla Abreder said. As a result, the company says it’s starting its own HR department, revising its policies and “developing a leadership training program for all leaders to ensure proficiency in performance management, coaching and employee development.”

The review, which took confidential feedback from 44 current and former staff, “detailed incidents carried out by co-workers and managers that caused a negative impact to some employees,” the email said. The audit found Stella’s should find a way to handle confidential complaints, upgrade its leadership training and improve its guidelines for tip-outs, breaks and trading shifts.

“While the review uncovered that a majority of employees feel a deep commitment to Stella’s and believed their workplace culture was strong and positive, they also understood not all their co-workers had that same experience,” the email said.

Neither Stella’s owners or the HR firm that investigated made themselves available for interviews Saturday.

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On Nov. 9, the Winnipeg Free Press published details of complaints from more than 20 people who formerly or currently worked at the restaurant’s seven Winnipeg locations. Earlier that week, an Instagram account called @notmystella’s had been sharing anonymous allegations of wrongdoing at Stella’s.

Owners Sohlberg and Abreder hired People First to start its audit that week. The company says it has now completed “respectful workplace training” with “more than 400 of our managers and staff,” and will create a new respectful workplace policy going forward.

Employees at Stella’s locations on Osborne and Sherbrook streets are pushing for unionization, having signed membership cards to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Union votes are expected next week.

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israel