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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that Birds the bakers were right to sack their employee?

289 replies

Sootikinstew · 30/07/2020 21:17

Employee of something like 25years accepting cash from pensioners and paying for shopping on her own card.

Now I know it likely came from a good place and she was trying to be kind and helpful. But AIBU to think Birds were right to sack her. This scenario opens up her and Birds to all sorts of accusations and would surely come under fraud or money laundering rules?

OP posts:
BoomBoomsCousin · 30/07/2020 23:11

But I think it is illegal to refuse cash in the United States.

Depends where you are. There's no federal law mandating shops accept cash but there are state and city ones in some places.

TinyTornado · 30/07/2020 23:11

For those of you who think sacking was u fair, there is a petition here to reinsurer and to allow cash in store.
chng.it/gQ2KdGWLnh

TinyTornado · 30/07/2020 23:14

My phone typing skills are quite ineffective tonight- I meant to type unfair and reinstate.

Becclescake · 30/07/2020 23:19

It wasn't the right process to follow, but her intentions were obviously good. I do feel for her, yes on the surface customers putting money into her account for goods would likely be classed as gross misconduct, but she was only trying to help out 🤷🏽. A verbal or written warning could have done the job?

TrainspottingWelsh · 30/07/2020 23:21

I suppose it depends on the circumstances. Doing it to help out a 90yr old or as a one off for an 85yr old that's arrived on foot with no card is one thing. Doing it for a 70yr old that prefers to pay cash and by your actions implying you agree with the customer and your employer is wrong to have safety standards is different again.
Either way sacking her seems massively disproportionate, I'd say either a slap on the wrists or a formal warning depending on the exact scenario.

Becclescake · 30/07/2020 23:25

Sorry got this wrong! She was taking the cash and paying on her card. I guess if she'd been there 25 years she was just trying to help the regular customers bless her. It obviously violated policy, but I think the company could have been a bit more lenient, there was obviously no malice intended?

Oliversmumsarmy · 30/07/2020 23:27

I was under the impression her purse was out and the customers paid the money straight into her purse and probably took their change from their.

Having read the article I didn’t think she actually touched the money.

Blackbear19 · 30/07/2020 23:30

smacks of jumping on a reason to get rid of an elderly colleague with lots of service at minimal cost

That's exactly what I was thinking. It almost sounds like an excuse to get rid. Either because she'd be expensive to make redundant or for other reasons (this may not be the first time she's undermined Senior Management, but first time they've been able to do something about it)

Fairybatman · 30/07/2020 23:30

It’s absolutely right that she was sacked.

  1. Repeatedly breaking safety rules despite clear instructions (£180 is a lot of loaves of bread)
  2. Having any of her own cash on the shop floor is an absolute no in retail and as a shop manager she should know better.
  3. Processing a sale for yourself on your own card is an absolute no and she should know better.

I feel sorry for elderly customers without contactless cards, but they could still use chip and PIN in almost all cases.

A PP mentioned wanting to help their parents get a contactless card. You could try opening them a starling or monzo account and set up a regular transfer for a small amount for shopping. If it builds up you can just transfer it back.

DarkDarkNight · 30/07/2020 23:31

It may not be ideal but the Bakery policy regarding cash was really discriminatory against the elderly and also potentially people with low income.

It’s a bad move to sack her. They should have apologised for putting this policy in place, or at least not explaining it to their staff properly. It is fine to encourage card payments when possible but discriminatory of them to say no cash payments.

Fairybatman · 30/07/2020 23:32

@TrainspottingWelsh

I suppose it depends on the circumstances. Doing it to help out a 90yr old or as a one off for an 85yr old that's arrived on foot with no card is one thing. Doing it for a 70yr old that prefers to pay cash and by your actions implying you agree with the customer and your employer is wrong to have safety standards is different again. Either way sacking her seems massively disproportionate, I'd say either a slap on the wrists or a formal warning depending on the exact scenario.
She had done it to the value of £180 though so not exactly a one off!
pepperycinnamon · 30/07/2020 23:33

I had to pay cash in the petrol station the other day as I was over the contactless limit and I'd got my pin wrong (steamed up glasses!), you think I'd given them a hand grenade Hmm

AntiHop · 30/07/2020 23:36

She should definitely not have been sacked. Plenty of vulnerable people only have basic bank accounts or post office accounts that don't have debit cards.

PickAChew · 30/07/2020 23:37

This brings back memories of a not great but bloody delicious anyhow cheesy jecket potato that I often indulged in with friends, in 6th form. And amazing cream cakes.

letmethinkaboutitfornow · 30/07/2020 23:40

@AntiHop

She should definitely not have been sacked. Plenty of vulnerable people only have basic bank accounts or post office accounts that don't have debit cards.
Re bank cards - why didn’t they get one in the last two months when the no cash policy came out? I am truly puzzled by it 🤔🤔
TrainspottingWelsh · 30/07/2020 23:45

@Fairybatman I realise that. I meant if it was mainly just the very elderly customers and then as a one off per older & vulnerable customer the first time they turned up without a card.

MadameMeursault · 30/07/2020 23:46

Money laundering??? Yeah pensioners are notorious for that. Ffs. You can’t even do a nice thing nowadays.

Marnie76 · 30/07/2020 23:47

@Oliversmumsarmy

I was under the impression her purse was out and the customers paid the money straight into her purse and probably took their change from their.

Having read the article I didn’t think she actually touched the money.

But then presumably all these elderly people were touching the money in her purse and could have been passing the infection around which is what Birds were trying avoid.
HerRoyalNotness · 30/07/2020 23:49

They could easily have a procedure for the few cash transactions though, like washing hands between them. Wiping the till down. As they didn’t, I don’t think she did anything wrong in helping the customers who only had cash.

WaxOnFeckOff · 30/07/2020 23:49

It's neither fraud or money laundering.

MorningManiacMusic · 30/07/2020 23:49

Because they're in their 90s?
Possibly?

cheeseychovolate · 30/07/2020 23:50

As times have been different and difficult I think she acted in good faith and should not have been sacked. Birds reaction has put me off shopping there.

Crumpets111 · 30/07/2020 23:55

They were wrong to sack her considering she was following their policy's.

rosiejaune · 30/07/2020 23:55

@Fairybatman

It’s absolutely right that she was sacked.
  1. Repeatedly breaking safety rules despite clear instructions (£180 is a lot of loaves of bread)
  2. Having any of her own cash on the shop floor is an absolute no in retail and as a shop manager she should know better.
  3. Processing a sale for yourself on your own card is an absolute no and she should know better.

I feel sorry for elderly customers without contactless cards, but they could still use chip and PIN in almost all cases.

A PP mentioned wanting to help their parents get a contactless card. You could try opening them a starling or monzo account and set up a regular transfer for a small amount for shopping. If it builds up you can just transfer it back.

A lot of people do not have cards at all. Or someone to help them solve this issue. Which is not always solvable anyway if you don't live near your parents (so you can't collect their weekly cash and pay it into your own account).

Refusing cash is discrimination on the basis of age, and potentially also sex/race/disability, as members of those groups are also less likely to have debit card accounts (or indeed any bank account at all in some cases).

So it is the employer who has broken the law; sod their policies.

MorningManiacMusic · 30/07/2020 23:56

I read the story about the 94 year old earlier in the week. They're having a 'mare of a PR week despite having the best pork pies in town.
I walked out of the Birds in my hometown last time I was in as I'm standing there doing the invisible woman thing while they all gabbed on.
They could have had a system for those not having a card, most other places manage it. But these are the people who run out of stuff at 11 on a Saturday morning and then spend all day wiping the bread slicer down (in my hometown) so thinking ("oh we could sell more buns if we had more buns to sell" " oh Doris aged 94 who's been a customer since 1972 hasn't got a card, but we don't want to lose customers so...") isn't really their strong point.
I feel sorry for the lady who was sacked though.