if I were her I'd speak to a lawyer about a wrongful termination suit. She would probably have a lot more to gain from that than whatever sub-living wage salary they were paying her.

And yes, the manager should still be fired. It isn't fair to expect her to work alongside someone that treated her that way.

She was offered reinstatement. That would cut off future damages, except if she could prove that no reasonable person would have accepted the reinstatement. Not easy to prove.

to do anything.

The contract probably requires the franchisee not to do anything that impugns Popeye's name.
This certainly impugned Popeye's name and Popeye's stepped in and forced the franchisee to reinstate the employee. I wonder if the corporation is going to force the franchisee to do anything else.

My wife worked at a place for 3 months and was told by the owner that her chief responability in a robbery is to guard that money with her life. This guy owned a couple other businesses and one of the other businesses got robbed about a month into my wife working there. The front desk worker was pistol whipped tied to a chair and gagged and left in a semi-clothed position. She remained tied up for 5 hours until a guess at the hotel came in to check in.

Now the not only did the owner demand the worker pay back the money BUT he dock the woman the 5 hours she spent tied up.

There was rumors that this owner had everyone of his businesses wired with hidden cameras so that he could see everything going on and he saw the robbery happened and how the girl was left and didn't come to help her or call the police. The guy said the only cameras he had were the Security Cameras everyone could see. 2 months later my wife found one of those hidden cameras she gave her notice and got another job that same day.

Since it involved an employee beaten and tied up five-hour, I'm 100% certain that it would be covered extensively in the local papers and tv news. Especially if the employer was such an asshole about it after the fact.

Please provide further detail about the incident so that we can Google it and share in your outrage.

but if you want more PM me.

15 years isn't all that long ago. A sensational story like this would generate nationwide furor even in the dark ages of the year 2,000.

If you'd care to share more about it, PM me.

(and I edited to remove the "hostage" bit, since I misread your post, but you'd already replied to me)

Graduate with a BA in accounting and 2 job offers she didn't want to risk losing. Honestly the girl was so happy to survive to see her child again she just wanted to get on with her life.

A psychologist offered her free services for as long as she needed it.

and Popeye saved her, but Brutus still needs an ass-kicking.