A former Dunnes Stores employee who was sacked after he was accused of undercharging himself for sausages for his mid-morning break has been paid compensation by the company.
Mr Gary Hughes (20) received €634 after he agreed to settle his unfair dismissals case minutes before it was due to be heard before the Employment Appeals Tribunal. Mr Hughes, who worked part-time at the delicatessen counter in Dunnes' Portmarnock branch in north Dublin, did not receive any apology from the company.
The marketing student was suspended and then dismissed last June after he was accused of under-charging himself for pre-cooked sausages he purchased for his mid-morning break. Normally Mr Hughes bought four jumbo sausages, and had the receipt signed by a manager before eating the food in the staff canteen.
On the day he was suspended there were no jumbo sausages. Mr Hughes said he was told by a fellow worker that he could take between two and three cocktail sausages per jumbo sausage. He served himself 11 cocktail sausages and paid for them but was challenged by a manager who said he should have taken only eight cocktail sausages. The manager of his section confirmed that a jumbo sausage equated to only two cocktail sausages, not three.
Mr Hughes said he offered to pay the price difference of about 38 cent or to put back the three cocktail sausages. He was suspended on the spot and then fired several days later. Mr Hughes said he was "dumbfounded" that he lost his job at the shop, where he had worked for about 18 months, over such a trivial incident.
"I didn't understand it. I thought it was completely stupid," he told The Irish Times. "I expected that I might have got a warning but when I got fired I was really shocked." He said people were surprised that someone could lose their job over 38 cent worth of food. As a member of the Union of Students in Ireland, Mr Hughes was referred to an official with SIPTU, who supported his case at the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which he settled last month. Mr Hughes received payment from the company within the past week.
Mr John Dunne, assistant secretary in SIPTU's administrative, supervisory and sales staff branch who handled Mr Hughes's complaint, said he felt the issue could have been resolved locally. "I'm glad we brought the case because the fact that the company settled it vindicated Gary Hughes. It sounds ridiculous that someone getting a few sausages for a morning break and making a mistake was sacked," Mr Dunne said. He said Mr Hughes had not received any previous warnings. A spokesman for Dunnes Stores declined to comment.