Grocery Store worker sacked for not paying for bags

VaughanJB

VaughanJB

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SOURCE: Sainsbury's worker sacked for taking 'bags for life' without paying

Worked there for 20 years. Bought groceries after an overnight shift, and took "bags for life" (value 30c each) without paying. Gets fired.

In one way, I know how the internet works, people are likely going to be "hey, he DID steal those bags, he deserves to be fired". On the other hand, good grief. 20 years, a mistake for a dollar or so, and you're out. These kind of absolutes bother me. Yes, he technically "stole" the bags, but one would hope the grocery store would see the big picture - no?
 

Jules said:
The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. Perhaps the news has left out part of the story. It’s hard to believe that a judge would accept this based on this petty, perhaps accidental, theft.
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I agree. On the face of the incident of 'bag theft' the punishment seems ludicrously excessive. Are there other elements than that?
 
In the text of the article

"CCTV footage shows Mr Doffou making multiple trips to get carrier bags but his receipt shows that these bags were not paid for.

CCTV footage shows Mr Doffou making multiple trips to get carrier bags but his receipt shows that these bags were not paid for.

He said he was tired and was unaware that he had clicked the "no bags used" button on the till, unintentionally not paying for the carrier bags."

Not clear is it?

Did he pay for all the bags at once & then bag everything he bought ? Or did he bag & pay for between trips?

Makes a difference doesn't it?
 
Knight said:
In the text of the article

"CCTV footage shows Mr Doffou making multiple trips to get carrier bags but his receipt shows that these bags were not paid for.

CCTV footage shows Mr Doffou making multiple trips to get carrier bags but his receipt shows that these bags were not paid for.

He said he was tired and was unaware that he had clicked the "no bags used" button on the till, unintentionally not paying for the carrier bags."

Not clear is it?

Did he pay for all the bags at once & then bag everything he bought ? Or did he bag & pay for between trips?

Makes a difference doesn't it?
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The self checks I use, I bag after the area gets full and put it in my cart, then ring up some more stuff and bag some more, and finally bag up the last bits and then total and pay. It's not until then that it would ask about the number of bags used and I would count them at that time. If he had to go somewhere to get extra bags it seems like he would be well aware of the fact that he had used bags.

Firing for that is harsh, but it probably wasn't about the monetary value of what he took as much as the fact that he indicated he might be untrustworthy.

My career was in banks where there was zero tolerance for the slightest theft, not one quarter for the pop machine. I remember one young teller's drawer came up short in a surprise early morning audit. He said he had taken some out the night before to use until he could borrow from his father that night and planned to put it back in his drawer the next morning. He did have it with him and probably would have put it back, but he was fired.
 
Della said:
If he had to go somewhere to get extra bags it seems like he would be well aware of the fact that he had used bags.

Firing for that is harsh, but it probably wasn't about the monetary value of what he took as much as the fact that he indicated he might be untrustworthy.
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That is the part of the article that wasn't clear. Multiple bags so pushing to pay would make more sense to me if he forgot the 1st. time. I think you are right. Theft by an employee no matter how small usually isn't tolerated by a company.

My experience was a shift supervisor with 28 years of employment where I worked falsified a document showing a union employee has supposedly put a $4.35 part on a vehicle. The union employee discovered the fraud by the supervisor & reported it to his union steward. It took all of two days of investigation to prove what had happened. The shift supervisor admitted what he did & wanted to pay for the part. He was allowed to resign so he got severance pay minus the $4.35.
 
It seems harsh that someone, especially an employee of 20 years, should lose their job over what appears to be a petty incident which might have been an oversight rather than a theft but ...

I think the employers were right. Their decision was not based on the value of the bags but on the loss of trust.
 
Some stores in my state have tried to either charge a small fee for bags, or shame you into not taking bags at all (“Wanna do the environmentally-friendly thing?,”asks the clerk.) The public outrage generated by either practice usually nips it in the bud…
 
Wait, a grocery store is charging customers 30 cents each for single-use bags that the store buys for one or two cents each? If that's the case, then someone's ethics are in question and that someone isn't this employee. :rolleyes:
 
I worked in the health industry, and we did a lot of things that came about because of lawsuits. Some of it was rather dumb, but if someone might sue your butt off over it, you did it. I don't know if this guy was a bag thief, but I think when corporations get overly picky about something, there was/is some kind of lawsuit lurking around. If they let this guy slide, and later someone got fired for stealing a can of soup- discrimination!!!!!!!! ETC. ETC.
 
IMG_0326.jpeg

This particular case strikes me, as one of those cases that falls tragically into the “lawful vs. awful” realm.

According to the judicial ruling, though ‘Sainsbury’ proved justified in their lawful right to sack Mr. Doffou; it’s interesting the way the outcome sits uncomfortably awful, wrong, in our hearts and thoughts.

I think it’s mostly because we empathize with Mr. Doffou’s plight, knowing he erred on the side of human-imperfection. Which, in such a case, should absolve him from suffering the fate of criminal stigmatization. Ergo, he appears deserving of leniency after ‘twenty-years’ of faithful service to a perfidious company that is incapable of incorporating humane strategies within their legal guidelines.

Imagine if ‘Sainsbury’ utilized a ‘morality meter’ as illustrated. Do you think Mr. Doffou’s punishment warrants a needle-reading in (-5) red?

Unquestionably, in this particular case, “the letter of the law” doesn’t appear to be a satisfactory alternative for ethical decision-making or reflection.
 
VaughanJB said:
In one way, I know how the internet works, people are likely going to be "hey, he DID steal those bags, he deserves to be fired". On the other hand, good grief. 20 years, a mistake for a dollar or so, and you're out. These kind of absolutes bother me
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But that's the way the article is written, isn't it? It's a black and white story that doesn't leave much room to do anything other than vote yes or no.

There's so much background that could be missing. Have there been other infractions by this employee? The way the story is written, it would seem no, but in the US at least, it's not that easy to fire people like that. There has to be some documentation, if only for unemployment insurance purposes.

Were there others factors in the law case that made them vote like that? The legal documents aren't shown.

This happened in the UK. Would it happen in another country in the same way? Hard to tell without more facts.

As a discussion starter, it serves a purpose. As a cautionary tale, there needs to be a lot more information to show what to be cautious about.
 
The fact that we have to pay for bags, is because the Government,
put a tax on supermarket bags, the tax is 10p, but the supermarkets,
who in the past were happy to give away bags for free, suddenly put
the price up, because they say that the quality of the bag is better,
many still charge 10p, but not Sainsbury's, they charge 30p, I don't
like this either, but I do pay if I need a bag, I asked in Marks & Spencer
last week, how much for a colourful, robust bag, that might be thermal,
I don't know and didn't want to know, when I was told that they will cost
me £8, so the 10p tax is being exploited everywhere.

Mike.
 

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