just been sacked for theft in retail

milothewestie

mrs-stressed wrote: »

Im so glad to hear that Westie. Its now the 27th so whats the developement now. Have you done all you said you would do. Whom have you got to listen to your side of the events? Please tell us whats happening as there are a few people quite concerned about you out here as we are all routing for you..

mrs s

thankyou mrs s,i have put my appeal letter in but the union have told me my dismissal will not be overturned this doesnt normally happen,they then said we will go to a tribunal and i have a lot of evidence against management that didnt follow company procedures,although it was reasonable to think i could of stolen some money,it is also the same for all staff in the store,most had access at some point,they have nothing solid against me nor in the past i have never been disciplined for anything at all except now after ten years,,,,,,i will keep you up to date:o:o

blue_monkey_2

Probably for the best Milo, would you actually want to work for a company that treats you this way. Have you started the tribunal procedure?

mrs-stressed

I agree - why on earth would you want to work for this scummy company again if they treat their staff this way to protect their managers. This company are not letting you defend yourself from a totally free and unbiased base. They seem to be making life so difficult that they hope you will crawl away and disappear. The very fact that you are where you are is bad from your ex-employers pov - in the eyes of the law remember ...everyone is innnocent until proven guilty.......

I dont think the ten year employment blemish free will have any sway at all. The facts will present themselves and thats what all decisions will be based on. Unless of course, they (the company) have a different story to tell of which you are not aware of?? You of course wont be aware of it as they will make it up to protect the company and anyone else they want to protect - you of course are not being protected in any shape or form.....talk about being left out to dry....

So let us know Milo

cheers for now Mrs s

stu12345_2

I know that in bus companies, the cash office has to have 2 folk counting the money to prevent one or the other stealing it.
what happens if they both decide to steal it.

suited-aces

As an auditor, no controls are fool proof, but getting two people to count it is a reasonable step that significantly reduces the chances of theft.

jobbingmusician

I do think that not enough stress has been put on the fact that £800 was originally missing - and that the OP was accused of stealing £800, if I understand correctly. This then mysteriously turned into a deficit of £180. The fact that the OP herself drew management attention to the shortage may also turn out to be significant.

OP, you should request a disciplinary and grievance procedure from your employer. I suspect that whatever else has happened, they have not followed their own disciplinary procedure. OK, I have only skimmed this thread, but I don't see reference to any of the following

1, An investigation
2. A disciplinary hearing where you were given notice of the hearing and notified that you were entitled to bring a union rep or colleague.

A 2 minute hearing heard without any notice would NOT satisfy any tribunal's requirements. Yes, an employer is entitled to dismiss if they have reasonable cause to believe that an employee stole from them, but they have an obligation to investigate properly to help them make that reasonable decision - or the decision is, by definition, not a reasonable one!

mrs-stressed

Milo - nothing since the 27th. What has happened since then..

Padstow

anxious_mum wrote: »

This happened to me once, when I was about 21 years old. I worked in a travel agency, and we all kept our own tills, with our own keys. One morning, I got into work to find that my till was about £200 down. I knew that this wasn't true, as I had counted it and submitted a slip with the takings. My manager told me that I was suspended on suspicion on theft, which was extremely distressing for me, as I am not a thief. So, I insisted that my manager call the police! She didn't want to do this, but I insisted, I even had to call them myself because she refused, quoting all sorts of 'company policy BS' and they turned up and took statements from all of us. Guess who took the money? Well, it wasn't me.............I will leave that to your own imaginations..

That is the golden rule, insist the police are called.

Decades ago, I was doing a promotion in tesco, when two of their detectives tried to frame me. I was alone in a room with them and I knew what they were intending, as they insisted on me handing my handbag to them to search.

I flatly refused unless they called the police first.
The stand off lasted for hours, but they let me go. They knew I'd done nothing.
There used to be a lot of envy at seeing the rep in the company car, especially in the days female reps were rare.
I could just imagine the nasty pair, plotting on bringing me down a peg or two.
The company who placed me there was furious, a company far bigger than tesco in those days.

I always drilled it into my daughter, when she first started shopping alone, due to that experience, "If you are ever asked to go to the manager's office, insist the police are called first."

nexus2011

I thought most argos have a camera above the tills ?

Flyboy152

concerned43 wrote: »

Of course they need proof to sack you, you should have been suspended on full pay while they carried out an investigation.
Retail is no different from any other sector - your employment contract should detail their disiplinary proceedures (if you have one)!
but basically I would be seeking a claim in an employment tribunual.
And before you ask, I owed a retail store and had £30,000 stolen and it was hell to get the person sacked. I also had friends who owed a 'retail' outlet and their CCTV caught an employee helping herself to £20k out of the safe - they sacked her and she took them to a tribunal - she won!!! - because they did not follow the correct disiplinary proceedings!
best of luck!

All the employer has to do is show that they carried out a full and satisfactory investigation and that on the balance of probabilities the OP was to blame. If an employer doesn't follow their agreed disciplinary procedures, that is their own fault. This has nothing to do with any criminal investigation carried out by the police.