Can a company do this?

[LushBlitzer]

Is a company allowed to open mail addressed to a specific employee? And take the said items inside and give it away?

My SIL send DH and me a giftcard in the mail just before xmas. She sent it to his work address. It was beautifully wrapped with xmas decorations on, so was more like a small package that may not have quite fit through the letterbox of our flat. She sent it to work thinking someone would be available to receive it whereas nobody would have been at our flat and we'd then have to wait till the weekend to collect it.
Unfortunately she forgot that DH's work place doesn't like employees to receive personal mail at work.

The gift never made it to us. DH wasn't told that it had arrived. DH asked post-room at work and they said that before 31st Dec someone came into the post-room, took all the un-opened mail, opened them and anything of value was put in a work raffle to raise money for charity. They can't say for certain if the SIL's package was amongst them, but they don't have it in their current pile.

DH doesn't want to kick up a fuss as he's fairly new at work and on probation still. SIL is trying to cancel but there's a good chance it'll have been spent already.

Realistically is there anything we can do to try and get the gift back? It was £50 so it's not a trivial amount to us.

So cantuccini as you’re so sure- what’s your advice to OP to resolve this?

Go to HR and ask them when they are replacing the 50 quid they stole. Isn't that obvious?

It's theft imo. They've admitted they have a policy of stealing employees personal mail even though they can't confirm if they stole yours. Surely they must know what the raffle prizes were and who received them? Otherwise the person who opened the mail and organised the raffle could have pocketed anything! I'd contact the gift card supplier and report it as stolen as it was never delivered. I'd also be tempted to complain to HR about theft of personal mail.

And they will probably laugh.

I don't agree with that policy - but it really is not theft.

It’s not obvious it’s ridiculous advice. Do you have a job?

someone came into the post-room, took all the un-opened mail, opened them and anything of value was put in a work raffle to raise money for charity.

Who is this someone? My guess is it went straight in their pocket.

Well that would mean the raffle hadn’t taken place moon, which I think a few people might’ve noticed

They are not stealing employees personal mail because all mail delivered to the company is company mail as employees are not allowed personal mail.

Of course I have a job. And not somewhere where gifts are blatantly stolen.

But Bellamuerte, personal mail shouldn't be delivered to a place of work without the employer's permission. As WooWooSister says, it's reasonable for a company to assume that mail received at its place of business is business related.

All post to my office is opened by admin. If we alert admin that we are expecting something personal then it will be given to us directly. All post to a company can be opened by anyone in that company, regardless of the named receipient, as they are an employee of the company and the mail can be considered company property, not property of the named person (for exampl, mail posted to an employee who has left remains property of the business, not the specific ex-employee).

In my organisation all gifts receievd are used in a raffle. We are not allowed to accept gifts from anyone we work with and it would be almost impossible for the person opening the mail to distinguish where it was a personal gift from someone outside of work or a client. Even if the SIL signed it, how can the person opening mail be expected to know the names of all employees or their family members?

Wait, is there a law that says you are not allowed receive post at your place of work? Or that it automatically belongs to the company?

Of course there isn't.

I get, for example, correspondence relating to my union membership and my pension at my place of work. Does my employer have the legal right to open and seize these?

No there is no law- no one said there was

Why wouldn’t you get that sent to your house Norman?

www.employeeprivacyrights.co.uk/privacy-post-rooms-personal-mail.html

If the post is addressed like Company X, attn. Mr. X then our post room opens it but puts it into the departmental intray to be collected. If it says “private/confidential/ or it is for the HR Department then it is left unopened.

Parcels are kept unopened.

My industry has very strict bribery procedures, everything given to any employer with a value of more than £10 has to be recorded and if it is deemed unprofessional we have to return it or raffle it for charity. But these procedures are well known and always the company reminds everybody mid November about it as often things are send as a
Christmas gift,

If a company hasn’t openly made clear (it could be in a published handbook or Intercompany website) that gifts will be taken out of the post I would log a complaint. It may not help with last year but could make things clearer for the next. Also, the company should state clearly their rules about private post.

Company doesn't allow personal mail and all employees know this.
Company therefore assumes all mail is company mail.
All company mail is opened by those whose job it is.
All parcels/gifts left unopened until designated person opens them.
Designated person puts all gifts into raffle as per company policy.

If an employee doesn't like that, then it's hard cheese on them. Unfortunately, your sil has made the mistake and you have lost your gift to the raffle.

If sil can get gift cancelled, OK, but whichever employee paid for a ticket and won it is going to be a bit peed off, and bosses may have to sort it out.

It's theft, pure and simple. I hope you manage to get the card cancelled.

Surely you can't enforce a rule that says you're not allowed to receive mail at work? I can understand not being allowed to send out personal post using the work post arrangements, or not being allowed to order anything in, but you can't control what someone is sending to you - how can you be reprimanded for something that's outside of your control?

I work in a law firm where we all get everything sent to work, because most of the lawyers are working such long hours that they're unlikely to ever make it to a post office when it's open...

It's tricky.

Even if a gift is sent to one person specifically in the business, there's some legal issues surrounding accepting gifts. It has to do with avoiding bribery.

At all of the places I've worked, gifts, even when sent to a specific person, have to be shared out or raffled off. We have a "gift table" in my current office (as we get quite a lot of samples/etc.) where anything sent in is placed and it's up for grabs. Company policy is anything sent in must go there.

As someone pointed out, there's no way to distinguish a personal gift from a corporate one. Best to avoid getting personal things at work!

Company doesn't allow personal mail and all employees know this.
Company therefore assumes all mail is company mail

Youve missed out that employees are not sending mail to themselves. People sending mail may not know that employees are not allowed personal mail. Since the person who sent it is not an employee, and the gift never reached the recipient to take ownership of it, technically the company has stolen the property of the sender. Who they have no right to take from in any scenario.

You can’t enforce it as such (you’d obviously have to be reasonable- your amazon prime parcels, no, unsolicited junk, unavoidable) but it does give the company the simplicity that everything coming in is for the business. Makes the post easier to sort and allocate

I suppose if I really wanted to, I could, Cherrycoke, but I prefer to receive such things at work.

But what if someone does open it? You can’t erase their mind of your private business, even if your company would support punishing them