Are employees too well protected in Ireland?

Motorist

A security guard was fired from Tesco for taking products without paying for them. He has been awarded €32,000 in compensation by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Seems he was let go for what is considered a very serious offence in many companies.

This case aside and in general, bizarre judgements from Employment Tribunals have resulted in many lazy, incompetent and useless employees keeping their jobs in this country. If they are dismissed, they automatically take a case to the Employment Tribunal looking for compensation.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/man-with-hiv-gets-32000-from-tesco-for-unfair-dismissal-2996637.html

starbelgrade

But he has AIDS.

Eric Cartman

definitley. Its one of the reasons keeping the job market down. That and the minimum wage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFbYM2EDz40

explaination of why minimum wage can be a bad thing

Coriolanus

Yes, I think in some areas they are like the above.

TiGeR KiNgS

starbelgrade wrote: »

But he has AIDS.

HIV from the article

El Siglo

Some reason I'm reminded of this...

starbelgrade

TiGeR KiNgS wrote: »

HIV from the article

Probably. I didn't read past the first line.

Nodin

Motorist wrote: »

A security guard was fired from Tesco for taking products without paying for them. ...........

Yep, he was clearly embarked on a major criminal enterprise.

Indo wrote:

......his consuming a bottle of Ribena and a packet of Snax during his night shift, and failing to pay for them.

Bannasidhe

starbelgrade wrote: »

But he has AIDS.

No he hasn't. He is HIV positive. That means he has the virus - not that he has developed AIDS.

Motorist

starbelgrade wrote: »

But he has AIDS.

I didn't know it caused memory problems.

"He said he had left his wallet in the office and meant to return later to pay, but got distracted by work and simply forgot" :rolleyes:

Lumbo

It also pointed out he was not informed that an initial meeting with the store manager was in fact an inquiry.

Maybe if the HR staff in Tesco's did their job properly the EAT wouldn't have to deal with these type of situations.

starbelgrade

Motorist wrote: »

I didn't know it caused memory problems.

"He said he had left his wallet in the office and meant to return later to pay, but got distracted by work and simply forgot" :rolleyes:

That's AIDS for you.

Motorist

Nodin wrote: »

Yep, he was clearly embarked on a major criminal enterprise.

Taking products without paying for them is considered a very serious offence by many companies. Unless a zero tolerance policy is in place, employees (especially in big companies) run riot taking stuff.

It's also why you generally find a search policy with many bigger companies also. Similarly being caught with shop products often amounts to gross misconduct and results in immediate dismissal.

Motorist

Here's another one of three guys who were sleeping on the job and defrauding the company. Each were awarded around 20,000 each.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/deep-pile-of-cash-for-carpet-workers-who-slept-on-job-1593844.html

Nodin

Motorist wrote: »

Taking products without paying for them is considered a very serious offence by many companies. Unless a zero tolerance policy is in place, employees (especially in big companies) run riot taking stuff.

It's also why you generally find a search policy with many bigger companies also. Similarly being caught with shop products often amounts to gross misconduct and results in immediate dismissal.

...yep, and logically such an attitude leads to mistakes, injustices and the opportunity for vindictive behaviour, as seems to have been the case here. Thankfully we have a system to deal with that kind of thing.

Nodin

Motorist wrote: »

Here's another one of three guys who were sleeping on the job and defrauding the company. Each were awarded around 20,000 each.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/deep-pile-of-cash-for-carpet-workers-who-slept-on-job-1593844.html

Did you bother to read the article?

quietriot

Looks like the Tesco Security Guard title attracts the classiest of ladies

0066ad

Lumbo wrote: »

Maybe if the HR staff in Tesco's did their job properly the EAT wouldn't have to deal with these type of situations.

Hey lumbo, my girl was in one of these situations with the hr off xtra-vision. She was working a busy saturday on her own and someone found 20 euro across the street and handed into the shop, as it was busy she put it in her purse for safe keeping, as there was alot in the queue. That she had to serve.

Next day she had to work was tuesday, but in that time she had a phone call from her boss to tell her hr wanted to see you also on tuesday, she asked what do they want to see me for her boss said i can't tell you it's xtra-vision rules.


So she goes to work on tuesday, about lunch time she had to go to a hotel to see hr of xtra-vison, with her manager only then she finds out it was about the 20 euro they asked where it was she said it's here i have it, they took it off her and frog marched her back to the store to pick up her stuff and sent her home on paid leave

On the following friday they fired her on trust issue's which fcuks up her cv she never never missed a day she was to work, never took a sick day but they treated her like that.

Whats worse is the assistant manager that shopped her to hr was using the shop as a front for his own profit, anybody coming in looking for a new ps3, xbox, wii and nds etc, he would offer to fix their broken consoles at his price and use the shop as depot for pick up and collection, the fcuker even offered to fix my ps3 saying the blue ray eye needs replacing and going to charge me 60 euro. I took a quick look on youtube to clean the lense took me 10 mins to fix and 2 euro for cleaner :mad:


Sorry for the rant and grammar, it was a year ago but still fuming

Cian92

Motorist wrote: »

A security guard was fired from Tesco for taking products without paying for them.

The man forgot to pay for a bottle of ribena and a snack, I doubt that is too serious. He was also being treated differnetly because he had HIV.

The reward seems fair to me.

Motorist

0066ad wrote: »

Hey lumbo, my girl was in one of these situations with the hr off xtra-vision. She was working a busy saturday on her own and someone found 20 euro across the street and handed into the shop, as it was busy she put it in her purse for safe keeping, as there was alot in the queue. That she had to serve.

It was a very bad move putting the money in her own purse. Im not saying she deserved any of what happened to her.

El Weirdo

"It was just resting in my account purse."

patwicklow

Good job he did not work for wall mart

Overature

I think they are way too protected, the unions have way to much control over the employers. As soon as you hear about jobs being cut there is always some over paid muppet from the unions saying how they are having talks and the likes. If I had my own large buissness I would want to be able to pick and choose who I paid to do the work, wouldn't be having any unions telling me how to run my company

0066ad

I agree with you guys, hindsight everybody is a genius, but was it even their money to begin with and to have that on her cv

That manager of said shop is engaged to her brother to make matters worse

Overheal

Nodin wrote: »

Did you bother to read the article?

I did, they admitted defrauding the company on a systematic basis. The ruling baffles me. Is there some sort of ritual employers have to perform in order to fire someone?

Outkast_IRE

Overheal wrote: »

I did, they admitted defrauding the company on a systematic basis. The ruling baffles me. Is there some sort of ritual employers have to perform in order to fire someone?

yes verbal and written notices of warning etc first before you can fire them

Overheal

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

yes verbal and written notices of warning etc first before you can fire them

So let me get this straight: if your employee stole say, a $2700 flatscreen television (70" LED Sharp Aquos, for giggles) and sold it on the street, You couldn't fire him for it, you would have to give him a written warning? And then what, "Don't let it happen again." ?????

Motorist

Slightly different but this one from the Equality Tribunal where a traveller woman claimed she was told to leave a Mothercare store by a male staff member. The company proved they had no male staff members at any stage in that branch and the incident never happened. The woman was still awarded €1500. What kind of numpties are sitting the boards of these quangos?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0816/breaking5.html

Motorist

Overheal wrote: »

So let me get this straight: if your employee stole say, a $2700 flatscreen television (70" LED Sharp Aquos, for giggles) and sold it on the street, You couldn't fire him for it, you would have to give him a written warning? And then what, "Don't let it happen again." ?????

It seems there are more minor offences which can lead to performance management, warnings, etc. A major offence should allow an immediate dismissal but this does not seem to be the case in Ireland. In the above case, the employee would probably sue for hurting his back while stealing the TV also and separately claim he was discriminated against at an Equality Tribunal because he had red hair.

AlmightyCushion

Overheal wrote: »

I did, they admitted defrauding the company on a systematic basis. The ruling baffles me. Is there some sort of ritual employers have to perform in order to fire someone?

"It was also noted by the tribunal that this was a custom and practice that was both known and accepted by the management" of the company over a long period of time.

It added that the company "did not rebut this in its evidence".

Management knew what was going on the whole time and never did anything about it. While the guys shouldn't have been sleeping on the job, management should have either cracked down on it straight away or informed everyone that it was no longer acceptable before they fired someone for it.

Overheal

Motorist wrote: »

In the above case, the employee would probably sue for hurting his back while stealing the TV also.

Nice!