Dunnes worker gets €26k over club card sacking

A SUPERMARKET checkout operator has been awarded more than €26,000 for being unfairly sacked after claiming unused value club card points by customers on her own card.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal ordered Dunnes Stores to pay €26,190 compensation to checkout assistant, Patricia Heffernan, after it ruled the supermarket’s decision to fire her was inappropriate and disproportionate.

It also criticised Dunnes Stores for disregarding the rules of natural justice in the manner in which it conducted an appeal by Ms Heffernan without making any contact with her.

Ms Heffernan of Edenmore Crescent, Raheny was awarded €24,000 for being unfairly dismissed plus €2,190 in lieu of six weeks’ notice.

Dunnes Stores said under the rules of its value club scheme, points earned by a purchaser could not be transferred to any other cardholder.

The supermarket said unauthorised and improper use of the card system by staff which resulted in either attempted or actual defrauding of the company could be a sackable offence.

The tribunal heard that the average Dunnes Stores customer uses their value club cards about three times a week. However, Dunnes Stores noticed during an audit of the scheme that Ms Heffernan had amassed vouchers worth €110 under the scheme between November 2008 and April 2009.

Ms Heffernan, who had an unblemished record with Dunnes Stores where she had worked for almost 10 years, informed the store manager that customers who forgot their own value club cards sometimes told her to take the points.

She claimed it had never occurred to her that she was doing anything wrong and said that other staff were also doing the same thing.

At a meeting with Ms Heffernan three days later it was decided that she should be dismissed with immediate effect. She appealed the decision but was not called to any appeal hearing. Her dismissal was confirmed in writing a month later by a regional manager.

The EAT said Dunnes Stores claim that all staff knew the content of the supermarket’s handbook on workplace rules and practices was “not sustainable”.

It claimed the onus was on the company to update and remind employees of what was expected of them and through notifications on staff notice boards.

The EAT said it was unreasonable for Dunnes Stores to have allowed Ms Heffernan to continue to use her value club card inappropriately without issuing a warning to all staff.

The tribunal said it fully accepted that customers would sometimes tell checkout operators to take the benefit of points earned through their purchases. It noted that Ms Heffernan saw little harm in benefiting from something which would otherwise be lost to the system.

However, the EAT said Dunnes Stores was entitled to stop the practice but said it had acted in appropriately and disproportionately in its decision to fire Ms Heffernan.