The Outback restaurant chain reported that it ended the practice of employees bending down to serve customers throughout Brazil. The measure was taken after the Public Ministry of Labor of Maranhão received a complaint about the procedure.
The case gained repercussions after lawyer Ana Beatriz Salgado published on social media that she was attended to by a network employee who was on her knees on the floor. “I thought it was weird because she did it twice. I asked and she told me it was the restaurant’s guidance,” she stated.
The reported episode took place at a network unit in São Luís on March 16.
The lawyer shared the experience on the internet and the video went viral. Outback commented on her post saying that employees were not required to kneel in front of customers and that this was both a best practice and an optional one.
“The practice of the attendant looking at customers at eye level, bending down or sitting next to them at the table has always been an optional action that was well known in the past as a front of receptivity during customer service. We inform you that the process, which is currently optional, is now being phased out in all of our 141 units across Brazil. All restaurants will be instructed not to use it anymore”, said the company in the lawyer’s comment on social networks.
Ana Beatriz said that, after posting, she received reports from other customers who witnessed the same scene, in addition to former employees saying that they even got injured knees because of the practice.
In view of the repercussions of the case, the Public Ministry of Labor of Maranhão received a complaint and is investigating the case.
What does the company say
In a note sent to CNN Outback reaffirmed that it does not force employees to kneel on the floor.
“Outback Steakhouse reinforces that it does not oblige its employees to serve customers in a kneeling position”, says the company, reinforcing that “the intention has always been to seek proximity and offer a very hospitable environment, both for customers and for employees” .
“Among these practices, our attendants usually introduce themselves by name, smile when welcoming and seek eye contact with the customer, sometimes at eye level, which implies sitting at the table or crouching beside from him. The practice of seeking contact at eye level has never included the act of kneeling before the client and is completely devoid of any connotation of servitude, which is precisely the opposite of the closeness we seek to create”.
The chain adds that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, “the practice of eye contact at the height of the customer was naturally extinguished and became optional”. “Eye contact persisted occasionally, as it is optional, but we have guided our units so that it is no longer adopted”.
“This guidance will once again be reinforced in all our restaurants. We reaffirm our care for people, a commitment so clear that today most of the partners who own the restaurants are people who started with us working in the kitchen or in the dining room. We reiterate, therefore, that Outback Steakhouse does not oblige, nor does it recommend, that its employees serve customers in a kneeling position and we reaffirm our commitment to continue investing in our people as a brand that generates more than 12,000 jobs in Brazil”, concludes the company .
Source: CNN Brasil
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