A long-serving Tesco worker sacked for eating a breakfast of eggs, beans, toast and sausages and not immediately paying, has been awarded €41,000 by a tribunal.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) ordered the Irish arm of the British retailer to pay Lisa Kinsella €41,000 after finding she was unfairly dismissed.
Ms Kinsella worked at a former Tesco store in Co Wexford and the retailer has since opened a new Tesco on the other side of the un-named town.
She was one of four workers dismissed after CCTV footage showed them consuming food without immediately paying for the items at a cafe operated by the retailer.
In the case against Ms Kinsella, it was alleged that on at 10.40am on May 22nd 2013 she went to breakfast and got two eggs, beans, toast, rasher, two sausages and a coffee and no payment was made at the till.
The following day, CCTV footage also observed Ms Kinsella helping herself to a sausage, rasher, beans, egg, toast, a hash brown and a tea or coffee and no payment made at the till.
Ms Kinsella was suspended by Tesco on June 4th 2013 and she was dismissed on August 19th, 2013.
Ms Kinsella had worked for Tesco since 2001 and had an exemplary work record until her dismissal for gross misconduct through breaching Tesco’s policy on honesty and staff purchases.
In her unfair dismissal action, Ms Kinsella said that she had paid for the food at a later date and this had been common practice when TS, a former cafe manager, was employed there between 1998 and 2002.
In evidence, TS explained that there was no strict policy but food could be paid for by staff after consumption. He said it was not a “general norm”.
TS explained that staff in the canteen were not allowed carry cash while working.
Ms Kinsella told the tribunal had management told her what she was doing was against company policy she would have stopped.
In its determination, the EAT found that there was a practice of paying later in respect of food consumed in the cafe and “accordingly, there was implied authority granted to the claimant (Ms Kinsella)”.
The tribunal also found this practice arose out of necessity as Ms Kinsella could not have her purse with her whilst on duty.
The EAT also found that TESCO’s “Honesty Policy and Purchase Policy are not sufficiently clear when it comes to the consumption of food and are overridden by the existence of the practice of paying later for food consumer”.
It found that the nature of the misconduct, paying later for food consumed, the justification for same and Ms Kinsella’s long and exemplary service record the sanction of dismissal was disproportionate.
Ms Kinsella sought her job back but the EAT stated that reinstatement would not be in the best interest of either party and has ordered Tesco pay €41,000.
