Red faces at McDonalds in the Netherlands earlier this week, where they lost a claim brought by a former employee.
The employee had been dismissed for giving a work colleague a cheeseburger for her lunch, rather than the hamburger which is a standard “perk” of the job. McDonalds claimed the upgraded food item breached their strict gift policy which aims to prevent staff giving free food away to friends.
The judge ruled that the dismissal was not fair and awarded the employee five months’ compensation, which represented the length of time left of their contract. The reason? The judge believed that dismissal was far too harsh a sanction, when in his view “a written warning would be sufficient.”
The moral of this cheesy tale? Employers beware – even where you believe you have your employee “bang to rights” in a disciplinary scenario, take care to act reasonably and fairly, or you might face action. Fairness requires that punishment is not disproportionate to the original misconduct. Consider the employee’s length of service and previous disciplinary history in all cases.
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