Retail staff being made to pay for till discrepancies.

user3628594016

Is this fair? Is this even legal?

I work in a petrol station/small grocery store. I am on minimum wage. If a customer drives off without paying for fuel, management check the cctv and if it is found that the customer had entered the store and paid for other items but hasn’t paid for their fuel, it is seen as the fault of the cashier for not reminding the customer by asking if they got fuel or not and the cashier is then liable to pay for the unpaid fuel out of their own pocket. So in theory at a busy time you could fill up your car, walk into the store, buy one small inexpensive item and when the cashier asks if you got any fuel you could lie and say no, the cashier has probably been so busy serving other customers to even notice you walking into the store from your car on the forecourt and the cashier will be forced to pay for your fuel for you and management won’t pursue it with the police. 

 Also, if at the end of the shift an employees till is down any more than £5 - £10 they are also asked to pay to cover the discrepancy out of their own pocket. It is a very busy store and the cashier is typically trying to manage several tasks at once whilst serving customers so mistakes are easily made. I should also add that when it has been requested that employees pay for till discrepancies or unpaid fuel management refuse to dock it directly from wages, but rather request it be processed through the tills in cash. Why would this be?

AskAsk

Doesn't sound unreasonable.  Cashiers in shops have to cover the missing till balance at the end of their shift.  Widely used practice.

Comms69

Only if you are doing it deliberately; or negligently (in the legal sense - IE massive incompetence) 

steampowered

Have a read of https://www.gov.uk/understanding-your-pay/deductions-from-your-pay.

Deductions should be made from your gross pay, so that you don't have to pay tax or national insurance on them. Not returned to the tills in cash. Management no doubt ask you to pay back cash into the tills to avoid any scrutiny or record of the deduction which could be challenged later, or just because it makes things easier for them.

Deductions for till shortages are permitted if authorised in your employment contract, provided that the deduction is not more than 10% of gross pay.

Wage deductions on account of customers driving off from the forecourt sound illegal. That would take you below minimum wage. Till shortages are on the list of things which are allowed to take you below minimum wage, customers driving off are not. 

Check in both cases whether there is anything in your employment contract to cover all of this.

DCFC79

If it were me OP I'd get out of there but it could be hard to find another job in current climate.

AskAsk

DCFC79 said:

If it were me OP I'd get out of there but it could be hard to find another job in current climate.

Or the op could just pay more attention?  A petrol pump needs to be authorised before you can use it.  So if the op authorised the pump, they should check everyone who comes in to pay which pump, as a matter of course.  At the stations I go to, they pretty much know which pump you used when you walk into the shop, so they must be keeping a close eye.

Petriix

Sounds highly questionable to me. While some deductions may be (debatably) legal, the practice is certainly not ethical. However, asking for it to be paid in this underhand way is definitely illegal. Look for a different job.

Mmills

I would also expect the til to be counted in front of me, just in case the supervisor decided that today they wanted an extra tenner. 

saker75

When I worked in retail (Spar; independents) this was normal. We had a weekly “league table” to shame us into accuracy. Mistakes happen but they shouldn’t really happen much. If we were more than 40p out on a shift then that led to a conversation with the manager. Mind you, somebody stole £3k from the safe and was never caught so that puts the 40ps into perspec

AskAsk

saker75 said:

When I worked in retail (Spar; independents) this was normal. We had a weekly “league table” to shame us into accuracy. Mistakes happen but they shouldn’t really happen much. If we were more than 40p out on a shift then that led to a conversation with the manager. Mind you, somebody stole £3k from the safe and was never caught so that puts the 40ps into perspec

 i didn't know that retail staff had to make up the difference at the till until i asked about being short changed and was told that if it worked the other way round, the cashier would need to make up the difference.  i have heard that if the discrepancy is more than £5, then the short fall needs to come out of their pay, but 40p is being too much.

getmore4less

there is a specific section in employment law for this.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/part/II/crossheading/cash-shortages-and-stock-deficiencies-in-retail-employment