Tesco to pay out €23K for dismissal

‘SO BUSY’: Cigarettes were taken from a Tesco store without being paid for

THE Irish arm of Tesco has been ordered to pay a former Night Manager €23,363 for his unfair dismissal concerning him taking a pack of cigarettes without paying.

At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Adjudicator Aideen Collard ordered Tesco Ireland Ltd pay Brian Scully the €23,363 for his unfair dismissal on the ground of gross misconduct for breaches of the Company Purchase and Honesty Policies in September 2019.

Employed as a Night Manager at Tesco’s Portlaoise store, Mr Scully vehemently disputed the finding that he breached the company’s Honesty Policy and argued that his dismissal was disproportionate.

Mr Scully stated that he had forgotten to pay for a packet of cigarettes on

July 11, 2019 which he had intended to pay for and it was not theft.

With him being so busy and tired he said that he had “clean forgot” to pay and

“one hundred per cent” had intended to pay for them.

Process

Tesco Ireland told the hearing that Mr Scully’s actions amounted to gross misconduct whereby he was in breach of the Company Purchase and Honesty Policies.

Tesco Ireland argued that Mr Scully was properly dismissed by reason of his own actions.

A store manager who made the decision to dismiss Mr Scully following a disciplinary process stated that

“once an employee had taken something without paying for it, you could not trust that person to continue work”.

In her findings, Ms Collard stated that the process “was both substantially and procedurally unfair, the substantial unfairness flowing from the procedural defects”.

Ms Collard stated that she considered it just and equitable to award Mr Scully €23,363, representing 25 per cent of 104 weeks’ remuneration.