A long-running argument over pineapple on pizza has ended up in a workplace tribunal in Australia, and the chef who refused to put the fruit on a pizza has lost his case.
Davide Tamburella, an Italian chef at La Costa, a restaurant in Brisbane, Queensland, was sacked in May after refusing for a third time to add pineapple to a pizza. He took the restaurant to the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s workplace tribunal, claiming he had been unfairly dismissed.
The commission published its ruling on Tuesday. It found that Mr Tamburella’s claim had been lodged too late, so it could not hear the case, meaning he lost on timing rather than on the rights and wrongs of the topping itself.
The ruling also noted that the pineapple refusal was not the only issue. The restaurant had raised a series of concerns about his conduct, including his use of foul language and his refusal to follow instructions.
Mr Tamburella has stood by his position. He told the BBC that, as an Italian, he regarded pineapple on pizza as forbidden, and that he would not serve a dish he considered inauthentic. He said the restaurant was the only one where he had ever been asked to put the fruit on a pizza, and that he had hoped the job would lead to a visa sponsorship.
The case has delighted social media, where the pineapple question is one of the food world’s most reliable arguments. But it also shows how a seemingly trivial workplace disagreement can become a legal dispute once a dismissal is involved, and how strict time limits can decide a case before the underlying argument is ever heard.
Sources: BBC; The Guardian.
