Lululemon CEO Defends His Decision Of Firing Employees For Chasing Thieves

Calvin McDonald, the CEO of Lululemon, fired two staff members for chasing burglars from a store and has stated that he stands by his action. He refuted the claim that the staff members got fired because they reported the incident to the authorities.

Talking to CNBC during a show, he said, "We have a zero-tolerance policy that we train our educators on around engaging during a theft. Educators" are what Lululemon calls its store workers."

"Why? We put the safety of our team and our guests front and centre. It's only merchandise at the end; they're trained to step back, let the theft occur, and know that there's technology and cameras, and we're working with law enforcement.

"Unfortunately, in this situation, the educators knowingly broke the policy and engaged with the thieves across multiple points-including following them out of the store-so post-investigation and the zero-tolerance policy, which is well known, that was what resulted in the termination."

"We train them to step back. It's about their safety, and we take that policy seriously because we've had instances-and we've seen instances in other retailers-where employees step in and are hurt, or worse, killed," he said.

Lululemon refers to its employees as "educators".

Last month, two female employees, one of whom was an assistant manager at trendy athleisure brand Lululemon, were fired for intervening during a shoplifting incident. The incident happened at a Lululemon store in Atlanta, where masked robbers were captured on camera taking merchandise from displays near the front of the store.

However, the decision sparked uproar online from those who believed that the employees were treated unfairly and that they deserved better treatment.