An Italian chef was dismissed from a Brisbane restaurant after refusing to serve ham and pineapple pizza, arguing that placing the fruit on a pizza was an insult to his culture.
Davide Tamburella was fired from the now closed La Costa restaurant in May, two weeks after a management meeting convened to address multiple complaints regarding his workplace conduct. The primary point of contention involved Tamburella’s refusal to prepare pineapple pizzas for a private function, during which he asserted that management directives need not be obeyed when they offend his cultural heritage.
The circumstances were revealed after Tamburella filed an unfair dismissal claim with Australia’s Fair Work Commission. In its ruling released on Tuesday, the commission noted that Tamburella had refused to put pineapple on pizzas on three separate occasions over the past four years, having previously urged his employer to research how important the issue is to Italians. The dispute took place in Queensland, the region responsible for producing all of Australia’s commercially grown pineapples. (Newswire)