News
15 October, 2024
A helping hand doesn’t pay
A Kilcoy teen said he was let go from his job at United Kilcoy after going to the aid of an elderly man, who was being crushed by a motorbike that had fallen on him outside the service station.
However, United Kilcoy management said there had simply been a misunderstanding.
Owner, Amir (who did not give his surname), said the site manager was attempting to help at the same time and had asked the young employee to return to the store to serve customers.
He is adamant his employment was not terminated and he was not yelled at.
16-year-old Seth Evans was on shift at United Kilcoy on Thursday, October 3, when he noticed a motorbike had fallen onto a man outside the servo.
Mr Evans instinctively raced outside to help the man, 86-year-old Ed Gordon, by lifting the bike off the man with the help of bystanders.
Mr Evans said it was immediately obvious the man was in trouble, with “blood everywhere” and a deep gash running almost from ankle to knee of his left leg.
Mr Evans said he provided his belt to create a tourniquet to stem the bleeding and called triple zero.
According to Seth, it was while he was moving Mr Gordon to a nearby bench and waiting for paramedics, that he heard his manager “yelling” at him to come back into the store, which Seth refused to do.
“The triple zero operator told me to stay out there and the manager told me to come back in so I said ‘No, I’m staying out here’,” Mr Evans said.
Mr Evans stayed with Mr Gordon while paramedics assessed the wound, including helping to hold a ‘green whistle’, pain reliever, in his mouth.
Once the man was placed into the ambulance, Mr Evans said he re-entered the store and was talked to by his manager.
According to Mr Evans’ parents, several witnesses informed them he was verbally abused in front of customers for leaving the register.
Mr Evans claims he was told to go wash his hands and then serve waiting customers, which he did until the end of his shift.
Five days after the incident, on Tuesday, October 8, Mr Evans claims to have gone in to start his next shift, only to be told he was to go home, with Mr Evans saying he understood he had been “fired”.
This prompted his father, Mitch Evans, to go to the service station, where he confronted the manager for “sacking him after he did the right thing”.
Mitch Evans admitted: “I got quite loud and verbal, getting to the point where I started diverting cars away”.
This allegedly prompted the United Kilcoy owner, Amir, to call the father and ask why he was diverting business away.
After confronting the owner about why his son was fired, he was allegedly told “I never said that” by the owner.
Police became involved in the incident and there is now an ongoing investigation into the disruption by Mitch Evans.
Despite being told he was never fired, Mr Evans claims he was told to have the week off, with his father receiving a message that said: “Not this week due to incident and police involvement”, when asking if Seth was working the following day.
Speaking to The Sentinel, Amir said he understood the issue with the accident arose when the onsite manager told Seth to stay inside at the register while he went to help Mr Gordon, but Seth also went outside, leaving the store unattended.
“The only issue, which I understand by the manager, is that he has got first aid licenses and understanding, and one person has to stay inside on the console, which is what he would have asked Seth to do,” Mr Amir said.
“If they are both standing outside there is no point.
I believe he would have been asked to stay inside, while the manager helped the gentleman.
There was no yelling.”
Mr Amir added that there had been a problem with Seth’s father “creating an issue on the site with an abusive attitude”.
According to Mr Amir, Seth wasn’t fired, but they are waiting for police investigations to conclude with his father for him to come back to work.
“His father is getting involved way too much and the manager is getting frightened and concerned how he is going to deal with this, which is why matters have now gone to the police,” he said.
“Yes, the incident took place and that was dealt with accordingly.
I understand there was some misunderstanding or miscommunication about one person staying inside, but I saw the video and there is nothing suggesting yelling.”
Mr Gordon, who spent a week in hospital, said he doesn’t remember seeing any other United employee outside, except for Mr Evans.
“Seth was first on the scene and a young couple came and helped him and he got his phone out and called the ambulance,” Mr Gordon said.
“He was really, really good.
It’s good to have youth that are so daring and helpful.”
According to Mr Evans’ parents, Seth took the impact of his actions to heart after doing what he believed was the right thing.
The Sentinel reached out to United head office for comment, but received no response.
