Reimbursin' it: McDonald's worker who had to pay for mistake gets money back

Ponoka McDonald’s employee reimbursed The employee was forced to pay out of their own pocket after an order mistake. CTV’s Tyson Fedor reports.

An Alberta man whose order was messed up at a fast-food restaurant in Alberta was told he didn’t have to pay for the mistake – but when he found out who did, he opened up his wallet and tried to pay them back.

Richard Onslow posted a video about the incident to Facebook, where it has been viewed more than 40,000 times.

Onslow told CTV Edmonton the mix-up occurred during a recent visit to a McDonald’s restaurant in Ponoka, Alta.

He said the employee who took his order was told by a manager to make up the difference out of his own pocket.

Once he noticed that, Onslow went up to the manager and offered to pay for the $8 mistake himself. He said the manager told him employees “have to pay for mistakes like that so they learn not to do it again.”

Alberta’s labour laws ban employers from deducting employees’ pay for faulty work.

In a statement, the owner of the McDonald’s called the incident an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and not reflective of the restaurant’s policies. He said the employee had since been refunded for the money they were told to pay, and the restaurant’s managers would be retrained on how to handle similar situations.

With a report from CTV Edmonton’s Tyson Fedor