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.

[Littlemissdaredevil]

I’ve worked for companies before where the post room intercept all gifts (normally from suppliers) and then there is a big charity raffle. There was no way of knowing this wasn’t a corporate gift and a personal gift from family.

Most companies won’t allow employees to accept gifts over X amount otherwise they have to be declared (we were told to do this in our anti-bribery and corruption training). It also stop employees in certain departments getting loads of gifts (e.g. sales) whereas other employees get no gifts.

[LushBlitzer]

DH doesn't want to ask HR in case it marks him out as a trouble maker.
He did know that he wasn't suppose to receive personal mail. His previous work place was ok with it so SIL probably forgot.

You'd have thought it was obviously not a corporate gift. There were no company logos, no titles to address anyone by. But even if was, I'd have thought the company would at least let DH know that something had arrived for him, even if he couldn't keep it.

Perhaps DH should ask his manager what the actual written company policy is?

Someone made a good point earlier... I don't know if a raffle took place, will remember to ask DH tonight.

[jcsp]

I’m not sure if it’s legal but it’s not moral.

Why are they opening stuff. I was sent catalogues, training material, samples that were only relevant to me. Giving me the unopened envelope kept everything neat and tidy.

I also bought things to help me teach with and had them sent to my school to avoid a trip to the PO sorting office.

I’d be furious as, to me, it’s theft.

What about a ‘email all’ to staff to see if it’s turned up with someone honest? Doing that would cause a rumpus as others will have lost out and others will be unaware of the policy.

I wonder if it was opened and pocketed?

My last school gave people permission to do this. Part of staff wellbeing. It included having cars washed, fixed etc in the yard, subsidised Zumba, I had my new bike delivered to the school office.

It was one of those little things that reduced stress and bother.

Hope you find it.



The wicked part of me thinks sending nicely wrapped dog shit may cause a change of policy? Address it to yourself - no one would suspect you’d send it to yourself, and if it was delivered you’d know what it was!

[SoupyNorman]

If someone opens it, then to my mind they'd be breaking the law (pension and union correspondence is clearly marked as such) and I would pursue them.

You could say the same thing about, for example, internal mail: I've had internal personal letters sent to me relating to, for example, probation and promotion. It's not reasonable to eliminate all personal correspondence for fear of someone opening it. It is reasonable to expect privacy at work, and to expect that anyone breaching that privacy will be severely punished.

[LushBlitzer]

I guess we were a bit thrown because in all of the places we've worked we were allowed personal mail. You just have to go collect it from the post-room.
I didn't realise some places open employee mail and take the items inside!

Regarding the anti-corruption policy, I'll ask DH to find out what the threshold is at his new place.

[Cherrycokewinning]

But have you thought about how Norman? Serious question, what options do you think you have to persue them?

[SoupyNorman]

It's illegal under the Postal Services Act (2000)

[Cherrycokewinning]

But what would you do? Call the police? Issue you then with a civil claim for damages? Put in a formal complaint? It’s all well and good saying you believe it to be illegal (and I agree, I think post marked private and confidential, which OPs wasn’t, should be expected to be treated differently) but what would you actually do?

[cantucciniamaretto]

Just because you can't do much about someone stealing from you doesn't mean you have to pretend that they haven't stolen from you.
Yes, the company has the power and the employee has none. That is a bad thing. Don't support it.

[IvorBiggun]

An employer can open mail sent to a specific employee because unless it is marked private and confidential they have no way of knowing whether the contents are personal or business related. Even if it is marked private and confidential they can still open it but there would need to be a valid reason to do so.

However, they cannot decide once post is opened to take the contents for themselves if it is nothing to do with the business. That’s theft.

Was the letter sent c/o or marked private and confidential?

[cantucciniamaretto]

There was no way of knowing this wasn’t a corporate gift and a personal gift from family

Of course there was. A corporate gift would have had the name of the company who sent it on it somewhere.

[newmumwithquestions]

I’m not sure if it’s legal but it’s not moral.

This. Sounds like a crappy place to work! It’s common for companies not to allow gifts from suppliers etc, but I’ve never heard of a workplace opening someone’s personal mail, even if it is discouraged.

[Redpony1]

We'd be up for gross misconduct if we opened someone else's named post here! The only exception is if someone is on LTS and then it's their manager that opens it in case it's business related.
It's clearly linked to in our data protection policy.

soupynorman you really should not be receiving pension letters to your place of work. I can't upload new members if they do not give me a house address. It's not personal enough!

[HotelEuphoria]

This is odd, I work for a massive corporate with piles of post. We don't just receive parcels or letters with things of value in that could be raffled off. What company does? the only occasional value items received might be long service awards but they would be sent by the company to the employee and not up for grabs. Other than that all we get is internal post and customer complaints!

[DailyMaileatmyshit]

Business mail (including all mail addressed to employees at a business address) is covered by the Data Protection Act, rather than the postal services act.

[HotelEuphoria]

Actually the long service awards go to the individuals line manager by registered post, but same applies.

[Cherrycokewinning]

The corporate gifts probably go to head office. Or maybe you don’t work in an industry where they’re given?

[Ellie56]

Did she send it by special delivery or in the ordinary mail?

[LushBlitzer]

@Ellie56 She sent it normal first class.

[WellThisIsShit]

Someone has been careless or working in a somewhat spiteful ‘rules is rules’ interpretation of the companies own response to protect themselves against the bribery legislation.

Try and cancel it, but other than that it’s probably something he’ll have to let go although it’s absolutely unfair that you should have to do so....

[insancerre]

Yes, I would expect a company that has a policy of no personal mail to enforce the rule and regard any mail sent to the company as company mail

[AlonsosLeftPinky]

I receive gifts from suppliers at Xmas which rarely have corporate logos or company names on. My company have the same policy of it all going in a raffle.

We are also not allowed to receive any personal mail, as frankly we receive enough as it is without expecting the receptionists to sort additional stuff out.

So the assumption is that everything received is for the business, as our policy states it. I'd never tell someone to send me something at work anyway!

It also isn't illegal for a company to open mail, as anything sent to a business is care of it.

[SandyDenny]

It's illegal under the Postal Services Act (2000)

What is? Opening mail addressed to employees? That can't be right, every job I've had with a mail room has opened all the mail unless it specifically says private and confidential on it, isn't that standard practice?

I wouldn't go legal in this situation, from what you've said you'll have to suck it up and make sure it doesn't happen again.

That said I think it's very odd that your SIL would take it upon herself to send a gift to a workplace. Did she look up the address herself without mentioning it to you?

[Viviennemary]

This is annoying. But I'd say having anything of value delivered to a works address where it is likely to be opened by anybody is really risky and not something I would do. Legally I don't know where you stand here. But regardless of this I think it was mean of them to do this. They must have know he was an employee and hadn't left so should have told him the parcel was there.

[WooWooSister]

Not all company gifts have company logos or return addresses. It's rather naive of the posters who are saying that.
For example, numerous marketing campaigns send out unmarked parcels as part of their campaigns.The final 'reveal' announces the product, sender, company, etc but the initial teaser mails include no company information. In one of my roles, I was sent an item of furniture with no company details, no return address, no notes.
It's laughable to suggest the mail room should contact every employee to ask if they recognise the sender of every item of mail.