An employee of Ex-Home Depot says he will not resume his work

ALBANY – Maurice Rucker will not put on an orange apron at Home Depot again.

Rucker says that he passes on Home Depot He tells him that part of his decision is economic: his hourly wage of $ 12.78 is more suited to teens in their first job, and not to l & # 39; employment. Men of 60

But he also doubts the sincerity of Home Depot. "They do not really react to my situation, they react to the reaction of the community and react to my situation."

"I know hundreds of people who say they're going to cut their Home Depot credit card and more."

Rucker was fired from his job at The Home Depot on Central Avenue on July 12th after leaving his cash register to call a customer who was launching racists. "Rucker, who was talking on the phone in a booth at the store's garden center, said that he was confused at first when he said that the customer had pulled his cart to another booth and had started complaining aloud.

"He's slow, he's just slow," the man said repeatedly about Rucker

when Rucker told the man to put a leash on his dog, the response was furious.

"You are from the ghetto" the man, who was white. "What do you know?" [19659003] According to Rucker, the man told him that there would be no work if there was no President Donald Trump, called President Barack Obama, a Muslim who did not know what he was doing, Rucker eventually leaving his booth, walked to the man, asked him to leave the store and added this: "You have to lucky, I'm at work, because if I was not "

Five days after the swap, The Home Depot told Rucker that he was fired because he had managed the situation. Times Union columnist Chris Churchill recounted Rucker's story in Thursday's Times Union

People immediately reacting to Home Depot on social media contacted the Central Avenue store and sent him emails

. On Friday, the company changed course

"We have reviewed this situation and we are offering Maurice his job," wrote Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes

. apartment in Albany, had been working for 10 years at Home Depot. He started at a Boston area store and then worked for the company in Vermont before moving to his Central Avenue location seven years ago.

His hourly wage when he started with the hardware chain: $ 12. His salary was $ 12.78 when he was fired.

For now, Rucker is trying to pay his bills while driving for Lyft.

But he says that he knows that he needs something that pays better. He has had several job offers, many in the retail trade. On Tuesday, he had a job interview with Daniel McCoy, the Albany County Director, who contacted the newspaper after the news announcement.

He said that he was grateful for the support of the public

Things in motion, Rucker said:

"This guy is just an asshole who uses Trump as his reason to come to me – as if, if Donald Trump was not president, I would not have a job, "he said.

"I had a job at Home Depot when Trump was just the problem in New York, not all of the country's problem."