Woman fired from Subway for helping fire victims

HALIFAX—A Quiznos franchisee has come to the rescue of a woman fired by Subway for doing a good deed.

The local Subway franchisee fired Heidi Heise after she gave away two six-inch subs to two people left homeless by a fire in a nearby apartment building, where Heise also lives. 

Subway allows Heise to have a foot long sub as her employee lunch, but staff is required to record it, something Heise forgot in the confusion of the moment.

“A couple guys were left homeless and I let them stay with me for the night. They came into work the following day to thank me for letting them stay there. They were saying how hungry they were and how they didn’t have anything to eat, so I gave them a free sub,” Heise said.

“The next thing you know I was being fired for giving out free food. It was my employee meal. They were saying because I did not write it down, I was fired.”

A statement from Subway says, “Each Subway restaurant is individually owned and operated by an independent franchisee and personnel matters are handled by each individual restaurant, who are required to follow all applicable labour laws. That said, we are concerned about the situation and are investigating the local franchise owner to find out exactly what the circumstances are.”

After hearing about the firing, Steve Webber, a Quiznos franchisee in Halifax, called Heise up and offered her a job at his outlet on Dresden Row, which she accepted.

“Heidi is a person who was trying to do the right thing. These are the kind of people Quiznos likes to have working in our stores,” said Webber, in a statement.

“I heard about the story and as luck would have it, my store had an opening. I thought it was great timing, so we tracked her down to see if she was interested.”

Webber has agreed to donate $1 from every sub bought at the Dresden Row location between June 12 and 20th to those left homeless. He will then match that amount.