Help! Partner accused of theft - wrongfully?

Danielled2405

Hi all

My partner has worked nights at Tesco for 6 years, on the produce section.

He went into work last night, on his section was an open box, on the floor of these red tools they use to open boxes, his one had been broken for some time and new ones 'were on order' so he assumed they had arrived.

He took one for himself and the other guys who needed one to do their jobs!!

He was then called into the office by the manager who accused him of theft of the said box openers... He apologised and said he presumed they were for them to use. He was then made to collect them from his colleagues and return them.

The manager then asked if he had one? He replied that he had returned them all as she asked, for her to reply "if you need one take one"

Apparently this is still going to be documented on his file as theft.

I am absolutely disgusted. Can they do this?

He hasn't even removed the said item (which is only useful for work purposes) from the store.

Thanks in advance.
Danielle

torbrex

Danielled2405 wrote: »

Hi all

My partner has worked nights at Tesco for 6 years, on the produce section.

He went into work last night, on his section was an open box, on the floor of these red tools they use to open boxes, his one had been broken for some time and new ones 'were on order' so he assumed they had arrived.

He took one for himself and the other guys who needed one to do their jobs!!

He was then called into the office by the manager who accused him of theft of the said box openers... He apologised and said he presumed they were for them to use. He was then made to collect them from his colleagues and return them.

The manager then asked if he had one? He replied that he had returned them all as she asked, for her to reply "if you need one take one"

Apparently this is still going to be documented on his file as theft.

I am absolutely disgusted. Can they do this?

He hasn't even removed the said item (which is only useful for work purposes) from the store.

Thanks in advance.
Danielle

You may feel that he has done nothing wrong but he did 'take' the item without authorisation and his manager was not to know if he intended to remove it from the store or not so she acted on the evidence and took action accordingly.

Danielled2405

Okay so my second question is are they allowed to leave a box containing around 50 box openers on a shop floor which contain sharp blades? God knows who could have got hold of them an used them as a weapon

torbrex

Danielled2405 wrote: »

Okay so my second question is are they allowed to leave a box containing around 50 box openers on a shop floor which contain sharp blades? God knows who could have got hold of them an used them as a weapon

Your partner should find out who left the box there (like he should have done in the first place) and report them to his manager, he might get brownie points.

MrChandlerBing

That seems ridiculous to me, I have no idea why the manager is progressing it to the point of having theft on his file

I would fight it.

duchy

A theft accusation is very serious. I'd be speaking to HR

AP007

Did the take the tool home?

geri1965_2

Sounds like the manager is on a little power trip.

Danielled2405

No he didn't take it home, it all happened within an hour, he got the tool from the floor of the produce section and worked with it, never being 20 foot away from the box where he had got it from!

AP007

Danielled2405 wrote: »

No he didn't take it home, it all happened within an hour, he got the tool from the floor of the produce section and worked with it, never being 20 foot away from the box where he had got it from!

How is it theft?

They were all on the shop floor???

spacey2012

An official grievance needs to be filed and an appeal against the decision.