The Irish Times Pub apologised and said its staff had violated the workplace ‘code of conduct’
An Irish pub in Melbourne has ignited a fierce debate after sacking two staff over an incident where a neo-Nazi’s beer was allegedly spat in during a heated argument.
The Irish Times Pub issued a statement earlier this week apologising over the incident that occurred on August 2, as video footage of the heated exchange continues to circulate on social media.
The footage shows a bartender being berated by two men, and being filmed, after a drink was reportedly ruined.
The Irish Times pub issued an apology to Jimeone Roberts and his friends – Stefanos “Stefan” Eracleous, Neil Erikson, Thomas Sewell, and Ricky T “for the incident that took place”.
The statement added it had sacked the two employees involved.
“The Irish Times Management team strongly disapproves of the ex-employee’s unprofessional conduct by spitting into the patron’s drink as a consequence of a discussion with the patron over a political topic,” the statement reads.
Jimone Roberts told the Herald Sun that the argument with the bartenders began over a ‘Sonnenrad ‘sun wheel’ tattoo on his right arm, which is a hate symbol appropriated by the Nazis.
“The bartender hassled me about a tattoo before instigating a political discussion,” Roberts told the publisher.
“He then asked: ‘Do you support multiculturalism?’ He didn’t like hearing the word ‘no’ to this, so he spat into my beer during a national pandemic.”
During the exchange both Roberts and his friend can be heard abusing the bartender, and as the group leave the pub one asks him what time he finishes so they can “meet up somewhere”.
Eracleous threatened to pursue the pub “in court and other arenas”, The Age reported, and since the incident, the publication said, neo-Nazi members “have been bragging on secret and encrypted social media channels populated with right-wing supporters”.
The manager, Nitin Parashar, The Age reported, handed over $651 dollars after the group threatened the pub with complaints to regulators and flooded Google with negative reviews.
The number 51 in the cash demand is significant to right-wing supporters as it is the number of victims in the mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019, The Age suggested.
The pub has been flooded with negative Google reviews by supporters.
The guys posting these reviews are literal unambiguous Neo Nazis angry that a worker at The Irish Times Pub spat in their beer
Let's be clear, the only thing the employee did wrong was not also pissing into their drinks
He lost his job when he should have been given a promotion pic.twitter.com/zJCCpZxMQW
— Zac (@_Zac_Langdon_) August 10, 2022
One review read: “Spitting in a customer’s beer and being anti-white; not a place you want to visit if you care about your white ancestors.”
Social media users weren’t happy with the pub apologising to “well-known neo-Nazis who are members and associates of the Nationalist Socialist Network is never a good look”.
This led to the pub issuing a second apology.
It read: “As a small business, still recovering from the impacts of covid-19, we followed the legal advice in taking disciplinary action for the unprofessional conduct of our staff for spitting in a paying customer’s beer,” The Irish Times Pub management said.
“We do not want to be in the centre of any political views or topics.”
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