SuperValu Worker Dismissed for Eating food from the bin

unfortunately · 01-06-2016 08:14PM

meeeeh wrote: »

O
Oh yes that's why communism was so successful. Btw what happens when losses need to be covered?

What moron would let an employee rummaging through trash for food? And what moron would fire them because they didn't pay for it? This case and yesterday's 2 Euro dismissal were probably supposed to set an example and all they managed is bad publicity for the company.

Communism in practice gave no rights to the workers in their actual workplace; it just replaced one set of managers with state appointed ones that run the factories in a similar hierarchical authoritarian way.

People are sensible but if you have a system of authority and ranks, then you get power trips and a disconnect between management and workers. I don't favour a system of top-down power; we collaborate in many ways and if we make decisions together democratically rather than an elite making decisions I think things would be better for all.

Tommy Kelly · 01-06-2016 08:15PM

elfy4eva wrote: »

Quite clearly says the combi had other waste products on it and that it was outside in the yard. In a Deli Cross contamination is the big no no. If an EHO had seen that it would be a serious issue for the store.

Waste products in this type of work environment could mean products with damaged packaging. It says the pizza box was damaged and I'd imagine the rest of the products on that combi were there because of damaged packaging as well. Basically returns, which would explain why they were on a combi as opposed to being in an actual trash bin.

I'd put money on Nestor's bringing up health and safety issues if they could too. Sacking him ended up being a costly decision. They should pull their necks in a bit and rethink things.

meeeeh · 01-06-2016 08:26PM

unfortunately wrote: »

Communism in practice gave no rights to the workers in their actual workplace; it just replaced one set of managers with state appointed ones that run the factories in a similar hierarchical authoritarian way.

People are sensible but if you have a system of authority and ranks, then you get power trips and a disconnect between management and workers. I don't favour a system of top-down power; we collaborate in many ways and if we make decisions together democratically rather than an elite making decisions I think things would be better for all.

Collective responsibility is the biggest cop out for screwups. Besides are you saying production worker should have just as much say into financial decisions as finance manager? While there are some good initiatives around profit sharing, power and responsibility sharing doesn't work. For example if a company needs to cut jobs, do workers collectively decide who will be let go?

seamus · 02-06-2016 09:41AM

meeeeh wrote: »

Collective responsibility is the biggest cop out for screwups. Besides are you saying production worker should have just as much say into financial decisions as finance manager? While there are some good initiatives around profit sharing, power and responsibility sharing doesn't work. For example if a company needs to cut jobs, do workers collectively decide who will be let go?

Collective responsibility can work in very select circumstances, largely when you get a small group of people together who understand what it is and how it works.

Outside of that, attempting to run anything without a hierarchical structure is usually a mess. It's doesn't have to be a traditional pyramid structure, but it does need to be a structure where sole authority for something is vested in one or two people and everyone else must defer to them on that task.

In a scenario where "everyone is responsible for everything", means that in reality nobody takes responsibility for anything because they assume someone else will do it.

What you end up with then is a power vaccuum where the most selfish individual will spot the gap and take it upon themselves to call all the shots.

You see this all the time in small "collective responsibility" organisations like management companies of apartment complexes. Decisions are made by vote, but people end up not caring and 99% of those with a vote don't use it. As a result, the 1% just run the company as they see fit.

cowboyBuilder · 02-06-2016 10:16AM

Dinny Byrne has Angina wrote: »

If nothing else, this only confirms the level of idiocy that exists in retail middle-management.

What kind of rambling idiot fires the hungry bin-eater, and then allows such a case to proceed to litigation?

Do you have to be intellectually below-par to work as a manager in Super Valu?

It was my worst job, back when I was 19 and in college I worked part time there, and you wouldn't believe the cunts that worked as managers.

Morale in the place was zero, they used to have us stock really dodgy ****e, I remember they had a load of cheap bottled drinks in a bargain bin, and there was broken glass on them - really dangerous powdery broken glass - I told the manager he still told me to stack them.

Same dickhead used to have us stay for an hour (which we didn't get paid for) to clean up.

One of the managers is still there - almost 19 years later .. miserable sod

KomradeBishop · 02-06-2016 10:29AM

Co-operatives don't have to be completely without management - Mondragon is one of the more well known examples of a successful co-operative group, and they do make use of managers.

Speedwell · 02-06-2016 10:31AM

When I worked in a food job, we were explicitly told that we were not allowed to eat discarded food for sanitary reasons, but we were also not allowed to take home food that was about to be discarded (but not yet actually thrown away). One of the assistant managers told me that some employees had been running a scam where they signed out food as "to be discarded" even though it was still saleable, and after they were caught at that, started to wrap food carefully before discarding it so they could retrieve it. We were also forbidden from donating day-old baked goods to homeless shelters and such because food considered non-saleable was supposedly not approved for human consumption. I found it all hard to believe then and I find it hard to believe now, and it seems to me that for what they claimed to be losing in sales and wastage, they could just pay the employees a little better so they wouldn't feel obliged to scrounge food.

sozbox · 02-06-2016 10:33AM

Speedwell wrote: »

When I worked in a food job, we were explicitly told that we were not allowed to eat discarded food for sanitary reasons, but we were also not allowed to take home food that was about to be discarded (but not yet actually thrown away). One of the assistant managers told me that some employees had been running a scam where they signed out food as "to be discarded" even though it was still saleable, and after they were caught at that, started to wrap food carefully before discarding it so they could retrieve it. We were also forbidden from donating day-old baked goods to homeless shelters and such because food considered non-saleable was supposedly not approved for human consumption. I found it all hard to believe then and I find it hard to believe now, and it seems to me that for what they claimed to be losing in sales and wastage, they could just pay the employees a little better so they wouldn't feel obliged to scrounge food.

Then surely the manager who simplicity approved it by saying 'whatever' should have faced some disciplinary action also?

Speedwell · 02-06-2016 10:34AM

sozbox wrote: »

Then surely the manager who simplicity approved it by saying 'whatever' should have faced some disciplinary action also?

I would hope so, though the incidents to which the assistant manager was referring happened before I was hired, so I really don't know one way or another. I would be surprised if there were any repercussions for the management, though, because the manager didn't need to countersign for disposal of non-saleable goods.

sozbox · 02-06-2016 10:36AM

Speedwell wrote: »

I would hope so, though the incidents to which the assistant manager was referring happened before I was hired.

Either way I'll be giving them a wide berth in future, it's not that I don't get most supermarkets are the same it's that Supervalu constantly bang on about how they are part of the community and try to look after their community through sponsorship etc.

Well compassion starts at home lads and if you can't take care of your own staff then...

02-06-2016 10:37AM

It might not be gross misconduct, but it is definitely gross.

Speedwell · 02-06-2016 10:38AM

sozbox wrote: »

Either way I'll be giving them a wide berth in future, it's not that I don't get most supermarkets are the same it's that Supervalu constantly bang on about how they are part of the community and try to look after their community through sponsorship etc.

Well compassion starts at home lads and if you can't take care of your own staff then...

Just to be clear, I didn't work for Supervalu. My husband worked for a while at our local Supervalu franchise, though, and the owner is notorious for causing high staff turnover even when the employees are not doing anything against policy (and that's all I'm going to say about that).

sozbox · 02-06-2016 10:40AM

Speedwell wrote: »

Just to be clear, I didn't work for Supervalu. My husband worked for a while at our local Supervalu franchise, though, and the owner is notorious for causing high staff turnover even when the employees are not doing anything against policy (and that's all I'm going to say about that).

Never thought you did

I worked for Dunnes a lifetime ago, same ****e.

Saipanne · 02-06-2016 10:40AM

keno-daytrader wrote: »

Have a f....**ing heart SuperValu!

Vile excuse for management and decency in general.

Can only hope that Karma exists.

It doesn't. The universe doesn't care.

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 02-06-2016 11:24AM

Talk about lack of compassion. Are some people incapable of using any kind of judgement or cop on instead of slavishly following 'the rules'?

seamus · 02-06-2016 11:28AM

Speedwell wrote: »

they could just pay the employees a little better so they wouldn't feel obliged to scrounge food.

Free food is free food. If a company orders in a pile of pizzas for a celebration, you'll see people on six figures wrapping some of it up to take home later.

One of the best ways to actually get around it is to actually provide the free food. After an initial gluttony period, people tend to moderate and only take what they need. If you tell them they can't have everything, then they'll take as much as they possibly can whether they need it or not.

sozbox · 02-06-2016 11:30AM

seamus wrote: »

Free food is free food. If a company orders in a pile of pizzas for a celebration, you'll see people on six figures wrapping some of it up to take home later.

One of the best ways to actually get around it is to actually provide the free food. After an initial gluttony period, people tend to moderate and only take what they need. If you tell them they can't have everything, then they'll take as much as they possibly can whether they need it or not.

I've had colleagues forget their wallet and vice versa and we'd always sort each other out. What kind of place must it be that there's no one there to get your back.

The real issue should be manager costs company 6k in damages claim and god knows how much in bad publicity over 3 euro, is that someone you want running your store?

elfy4eva · 02-06-2016 11:37AM

sozbox wrote: »

The real issue should be manager costs company 6k in damages claim and god knows how much in bad publicity over 3 euro, is that someone you want running your store?

The owners aren't exactly known for wise business decisions.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/aib-obtains-9-3-million-orders-against-galway-businessmen-1.2150212

sozbox · 02-06-2016 11:44AM

elfy4eva wrote: »

The owners aren't exactly known for wise business decisions.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/aib-obtains-9-3-million-orders-against-galway-businessmen-1.2150212

Great find

Supervalu should really consider the people they hand over franchise licences to.

gramar · 02-06-2016 11:48AM

Supervalu....Supermac.....shíte fcuking managers though

screamer · 02-06-2016 11:55AM

I have no problem with that to be honest. I've often left my wallet at home and would borrow a few quid from someone in work not go rooting through bins.
I used to work for a supermarket when younger and it was forbidden to even go near the bins as they were big industrial compactors and you needed to be trained to operate them........

Speedwell · 02-06-2016 12:07PM

seamus wrote: »

Free food is free food. If a company orders in a pile of pizzas for a celebration, you'll see people on six figures wrapping some of it up to take home later.

One of the best ways to actually get around it is to actually provide the free food. After an initial gluttony period, people tend to moderate and only take what they need. If you tell them they can't have everything, then they'll take as much as they possibly can whether they need it or not.

Heh, true. In my 20s I worked in the shopping mall for both Godiva chocolates and Starbucks. Godiva allowed ONE chocolate of your choice per shift, to be eaten on shift (and I cannot tell you how much of a relief that single chocolate was, some days). Starbucks allowed the employee to take home a certain amount of coffee for personal use... in fact, they rather insisted you take it, probably to ensure you had some familiarity with the product and because they didn't want to have to treat employees differently. I would store it in the freezer and give it away to friends because at the time I couldn't physically handle caffeine very well.

TerrorFirmer · 02-06-2016 12:58PM

What story are people reading that they're creating this story of a half starved member of staff who was rummaging in the bin for food?

He basically saw a pizza with a damaged box that was still wrapped in the plastic cellophane that frozen/fresh pizzas come in.

It was destined to be returned/binned and he asked could he have it and was told 'whatever' - so he had deli staff cook it for him and he ate it.

Maybe he was loath to see it go to waste when it was evidently still in perfectly consumable condition, being still wrapped? Maybe he thought it would get him a free lunch? I don't know.

But I don't see how people are reaching the conclusion that he was starving, had no access to money, couldn't afford to eat, was hunting in bins, had no member of staff to turn to for a loan of a few euro, etc.

sozbox · 02-06-2016 01:06PM

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

What story are people reading...

...But I don't see how people are reaching the conclusion that he was starving, had no access to money..

We read the story in the OP where it states:

" and on October 11th, 2014, Mr De Morais had arrived to work without his wallet."

i.e no access to money.

Arghus · 02-06-2016 01:15PM

I think we're only getting an approximation of what really happened. To have somebody from management just say "whatever" to the idea of an employee taking food from a bin seems a bit unlikely to me. And then they don't turn up in court? Seems slightly odd.

From my first hand experience from working in a similar enviroment, I know that the managers would have a fit if they knew someone was raiding the bins for lunch.

TerrorFirmer · 02-06-2016 01:38PM

sozbox wrote: »

We read the story in the OP where it states:

" and on October 11th, 2014, Mr De Morais had arrived to work without his wallet."

i.e no access to money.

We know he forgot his wallet. I forget my wallet on occasion, it doesn't mean I go hunting in bins in a state of half starved delirium.

I'm sure he had perfect access to money working in a supermarket, he just said to himself 'Ah sure, this would go to waste anyway, I'll ask the boss if I can have it'.

He asked, was seemingly given permission, then got fired. Also, he did not go looking in bins, in the first instance. 'Bin' and 'Rubbish' are used in the story for good effect, but he actually noticed the perfectly good pizza on a trolley of damaged stock destined to be returned/written off.

I feel sorry for the guy, a lot of people - including some media - are twisting the story into him eating food from the actual bin. Even the thread title says that.

I worked in a fast food place when I was younger, loads of stuff that wasn't fit for sale and assigned for the bin was just eaten by staff. Not really a huge amount different from this case.

osarusan · 02-06-2016 02:35PM

From the (misleading) thread title I expected he was literally rummaging round in the bin for stuff and was being fired as Supervalu would naturally like to avoid him getting sick or soemthing.

But instead it's another case of 'theft'. The fact that the higher-up who he thought gave him permission to take the pizza wasn't there/didn't contribute is ridiculous. His version of events would be most important and relevant.

gramar · 02-06-2016 02:49PM

It's like Oliver Twist only set in North Korea.

Wtf is wrong with managers that they have gone to absolute town with such issues of minuscule importance. A towering mountain range has been made out of a molehill. It's awful management...complete mis-management.

SuperValu Worker Dismissed for Eating food from the bin

Comments