‘Iceland failed to properly investigate the misconduct’
An Iceland employee has been compensated £3,000 after she was fired for eating a single Cadbury’s Twirl bar taken from a multi-pack.
Back in 2019, Sharon Cassidy was caught on CCTV opening a £1 pack of five chocolate bars without paying for them, reports the Mirror.
While Cassidy argued that the Twirls belonged to a fellow employee, Iceland’s Paisley, Renfrewshire store sacked her. Senior supervisor Margaret Paterson checked the CCTV after finding a solitary Twirl bar and also discovered Cassidy giving one of the bars to a kid in a buggy.
Cassidy, who had worked for the brand since 2004, admitted to everything and emphasised that the chocolate bars were not stock.
She said: “We’re always eating each other’s food… it’s not uncommon for sweets to be left at tills.”
The tribunal concluded that management did not properly investigate the situation, which led to Cassidy’s unfair dismissal.
The tribunal said: “Miss Cassidy argues there was no reasonable basis on which Iceland could have formed a belief that she knew the items in question were the property of the company, and therefore guilty of theft.
“The item did not appear to be stock: the packet was open and sweets were missing from the packet; it had not been half priced; it was not on a shelf or a topper; or hanging up with other stock.
“[It was] not established that Miss Cassidy knew the items were stock, and it was not reasonable to assume Miss Cassidy knew or ought to have known the items were stock.”
Employment Judge Muriel Robison added that she found “Iceland failed to properly investigate the misconduct before making the decision to dismiss.”
Cassidy was awarded £3,010 for unfair dismissal, which we would promptly spend on Twirl bars at Aldi because we’re petty.
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