recycled something at work now facing disciplinary for theft!

fluffy*giraffe*

hello and hope i am in the right place

my OH is in this situation at the moment, what can we expect?

thanks in advance

Raksha

Will need more details I guess - what got recycled? Was it your property or your employers? Is it still on site, or lost forever?

fluffy*giraffe*

hi and thanks, an office was being cleaned and some metal items were put in a skip with lots of other stuff, a firm was called in and all metal removed as has been the practice for many years. no money changed hands as he was asked this by his manager.

turns out some of the metal was still needed but now lost and needs to be replaced. this was offered to be done for free by contractor but manager refused and said it will go the formal route. this OH found out when he rang contractor for a replacement. not good practice to hear you are up for disciplinary from someone else

CIS

hi and thanks, an office was being cleaned and some metal items were put in a skip with lots of other stuff, a firm was called in and all metal removed as has been the practice for many years. no money changed hands as he was asked this by his manager.

I suppose it depends on what he was told to get rid off and whether he was the only person involved.

fluffy*giraffe*

he is told to get on with things and work on his own initiative which he did as he has in the past. they could have been replaced for free but manager refused.

heretolearn_2

Hi

I think they'll be looking at 2 aspects of what happened:

1) Did he have the authority to throw away those items in the first place (if he isn't the person who arranged for them to be skipped, then it's not his problem. He needs to refer them to whoever had responsibility for deciding what went and what stayed. This doesn't mean blaming the person who followed orders and skipped them. Also - was a list prepared of items for disposal? Was the clearance discussed with his supervisors? What level of 'cleaning' was being expected and did he exceed that? Was he supervising the cleaning and therefore should have stopped the items being binned? Exactly what was he asked to do?)

2) Did he receive anything in return for the metal. OK they've asked the question, but it's obviously an issue. It's not unknown for people to sell off 'rubbish' to the scrap metal merchants that doesn't belong to them. I'm not saying this is what your OH did, but it's clearly a suspicion already at the company. He might want to get some proof that no payment was received by him?

colino

Recycling! Priceless.
By "passing on" items to anyone, you create a precedent that an informal supply chain is created and there may be a suggestion that the volume of "recycling" is increased meaning good product becomes wrongly, prematurely and expensively disposed of.
Additionally the company are completely correct in refusing the return (of their own goods) as they have no idea what has happened to them or they are still fit for purpose.
To potentially retain the job, albeit with a final written warning, a bit of grovelling and offer to pay for the "recycled" goods is called for.

fluffy*giraffe*

thanks for the replies,

heretolearn, he had the authority to dispose of the items as it is part of his job. the manager who brought the action is the person who arranged removal and disposal into skip. he did not clear the office and had nothing to do with this but just dealt with getting rid of stuff to be recycled.

no money changed hands and he has proof of this in writing.

colino, thanks for the reply. the thing that mystifies me is if he is accused of theft why is he still working and why was he sent home with keys for every building as he is on call this week?

anamenottaken

fluffy*giraffe* wrote: »

thanks for the replies,

heretolearn, he had the authority to dispose of the items as it is part of his job. the manager who brought the action is the person who arranged removal and disposal into skip. he did not clear the office and had nothing to do with this but just dealt with getting rid of stuff to be recycled.

no money changed hands and he has proof of this in writing.

colino, thanks for the reply. the thing that mystifies me is if he is accused of theft why is he still working and why was he sent home with keys for every building as he is on call this week?

I would expect it to be very difficult to prove a negative. What kind of written "proof" is there?

wantsajob

If it was part of the job, and it was not made clear they should not be recycled, I cannot see how he can be punished. Perhaps they should do what they do in that home make over TV programme, and put big sticky labels on saying "KEEP ME".

If he keeps the job, in future he should refuse to perform such tasks, unless someone is available to make clear what should and should not be recycled.

fluffy*giraffe*

anamenottaken he has a letter from the people who removed the items.