Reasonable Cause for Dismissal

If an employee steals a low-value item from your business, is it still reasonable to dismiss them?

In the case of Doffou v Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, the claimant had been working for Sainsbury's for around 20 years. After a night shift, he did some personal shopping and used the self-checkout, where he failed to record the number of reusable "bags for life" that were also part of his purchase.

Sainsbury's followed a reasonable, fair and comprehensive disciplinary procedure - an investigation was held where CCTV footage of the incident was reviewed, and then the employee was invited to a disciplinary hearing and pre-warned that the outcome could be dismissal. The CCTV footage was once again reviewed with the employee in this meeting.

Through these investigations, Sainsbury's determined that the claimant had not made a mistake and deliberately did not pay for the bags. This meant that the disciplinary hearing resulted in the dismissal of the employee.

The claim was brought before the Employment Tribunal as the claimant argued that this was outside the range of a reasonable response. The Employment Tribunal found that the claimant was aware that Sainsbury's had a zero-tolerance policy towards theft, regardless of the item's monetary worth.

They also found that because Sainsbury's had followed a robust disciplinary procedure, the dismissal was entirely fair.

In conclusion, if your employees are aware that you have no tolerance for stealing, then this applies no matter what the value of the stolen item is. This case also highlights the need to follow a fair and legal disciplinary process when handling any case of misconduct.

For further HR advice or guidance in relation to the topic above, get in touch with the Lansbury HR Consultants. We are here to support businesses nationally and locally in Burton-on-Trent, Swadlincote, and Derby.