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

[Sootikinstew]

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?

I am struggling to see what she did do wrong and no one has come up with an explanation

@InTheShadowOfTheMushroomCloud am appreciating the Chatwins love 😊

I am struggling to see what she did do wrong and no one has come up with an explanation

I don't agree with sacking her but this demonstrates a pretty lax approach to normal cash handling, and I'm guessing, their business procedures

I have done this working in a shop my friend owns, I rang up and checked first despite knowing they'd be cool with it

It's potentially suspicious behaviour and opens you and the shop up to accusations of impropriety

I am struggling to see what she did do wrong and no one has come up with an explanation

No one here knows. We don’t have sight of the company’s policy, her explanation, or any other investigation that was carried out.

@Oliversmumsarmy

I am struggling to see what she did do wrong and no one has come up with an explanation

The company's policy was no cash for infection control reasons.

She was basically using her purse as a till and handling cash. I don't believe for a second everyone gave her the exact money so she must have been giving change.
This in turn means she was undermining the infection control policy.
It also leaves her / the company open to fraud allegations.

My suspicion is it's not the first time she's ignored or flouted company policy. Been there a very long time, stuck in her ways and possibly not open to modern ideas and practices, "We've always done this why change??" type attitude.

@ittakes2 No, I'm not associated with Birds. Just a resident of Nottinghamshire interested in others perspectives on the situation.

*The company's policy was no cash for infection control reasons.

She was basically using her purse as a till and handling cash. I don't believe for a second everyone gave her the exact money so she must have been giving change*

My understanding was she didn’t touch the money people put the money in her purise and took their change themselves so wasn’t handling any cash

My understanding was she didn’t touch the money people put the money in her purise and took their change themselves so wasn’t handling any cash

Oliversmumsarmy It’s irrelevant that she didn’t physically touch the money. It’s misuse of cash handling and gross misconduct.

Companies are, quite rightly, very strict when it comes to monetary policies. She has broken a fundamental policy and shown she isn’t trustworthy with their money, because she can’t follow simple instructions, and therefore they don’t want her as an employee anymore.

I don't think anywhere should be card only, especially not a shop selling essentials. There are some very vulnerable people (MH issues as well as very elderly) living 'independently' without any kind of support who are going to be pretty lost & confused at the moment. I used to work for a charity helping people with severe MH issues and I can imagine how some of those people will be struggling right now. I think their need to fuction outweights the completely miniscule risk of someone who is washing their hands regularly etc catching bloody Covid off a bloody pound coin. Ditto masks & a whole bunch of other things.

A different angle for those who don’t agree with the company’s decision. A bit of risk assessment

• the couple / money/ this person... tests positive for Covid!

The bakery needs to shut down! Then not only the old will get no essential food from here and need to find alternative option, but everyone else is going to suffer.

I think I made enough sacrifices for the old and vulnerable...😔

Have I mentioned the income loss for the company and the potential closure and permanent job loss? 🤔

This is their rule and process. Like it and follow it or don’t like it and take your business somewhere else.

just to add to the above, the shop needs to close for deep cleaning and what not

Anyone can get an account and card, it's not excluding anyone.

That might technically be the case. You can get an account if you're over eighteen and have a fixed address. Lots of people in this country are homeless and therefore have no way of getting an account - and that's not just people living out on the streets. Lots of people sofa surf, sleep on family's floors or in spare rooms, but don't technically have an address of their own. They're already some of the most vulnerable people in society - taking away their ability to use cash only disadvantages them further.

COVID risk isn't the be-all and end-all. The risk of catching it from touching coins is tiny - if people want to take that risk, they should be able to do so. Staff can wear gloves or sanitise their hands.

I think this highlights the wider issue of financial exclusion that exists today.

Many companies clearly haven't given any thought to the many people who cannot pay electronically and these people are more likely to be poor, elderly or vulnerable.

It wouldn't be a large amount of takings overall and I'm sure there are solutions to make accepting money safe - finding ways to sanitise it, accepting the correct amount which can then be quarantined for example.

That many companies are just cutting off the only means by which many people can buy food, seemingly without a second thought, is a national disgrace. Perhaps the government should have taken a stronger lead on finding solutions to the issue.

the couple / money/ this person... tests positive for Covid

But you can catch Covid from anywhere and could have handled money from another store.

Do Birds have a policy where employees are not allowed to purchase anything from the store.

As there is no loss on anyone’s part and no health and safety rules were broken, does Birds really think destroying the company is worth making sure every single rule is abided by because I can see Birds losing a lot of custom over this

It does sound like Birds don’t know its customer base or are trying to get rid of their older customers

Well there's another company that will go to the wall because they don't understand their customers. It will be entirely their own fault

But you can catch Covid from anywhere and could have handled money from another store.

Do Birds have a policy where employees are not allowed to purchase anything from the store.

Oliversmumsarmy Both also irrelevant. Their policy is card only; this employee broke a fundamental cash handling rule and committed gross misconduct. She has shown she cannot be trusted with the most important part of their business - money - and so they couldn’t continue to employ her.

It does sound like Birds don’t know its customer base or are trying to get rid of their older customers

No, it sounds like they want to be able to trust their employees—particularly management—with their policies and know that they won’t just make their own rules up because they don’t agree.

I'm in Derby, and Birds was one of the first places near me arranging food deliveries with a phone line for elderly and other shielding vulnerable people to get help & worked with a lot of organizations in getting help out there. It won't have gotten to every individual and maybe they need to do more to help more vulnerable groups and I don't really think with everything else they've done that this is going to majorly impact them. They've been very clear about their no-cash policy from the get-go, it isn't new and it's all over.

With all the legal paperwork and checks that goes into handling cash in most businesses, I'm not sure - even with the best of intentions - how it could not be gross misconduct from a business standpoint. It's not just a H&S issue,, even if she was doing everything above board, the company really can't just ignore something as dodgy sounding as 'you put the cash in my purse and I'll pay for you with my card'. I mean, that doesn't sound like a reasonable business practice.

My 85 year old FIL has no problem handling bank cards. Age doesn’t necessarily mean that a person can’t cope with card transactions.

Our local Co-Op's card machine went down about 2 weeks ago and ALL purchases had to be made using cash only....nobody has fallen ill or died. Massive overreaction from Birds..."we want our customers to be safe" yet they don't care if the elderly eat.

Massive overreaction from Birds..."we want our customers to be safe" yet they don't care if the elderly eat.

trappedsincesundaymorn Don’t be so silly. Birds is not the only shop out there selling bread you know.

Their policy is card only; this employee broke a fundamental cash handling rule and committed gross misconduct. She has shown she cannot be trusted with the most important part of their business - money - and so they couldn’t continue to employ her

They got card only.
They did lose money and no cash was put in their till
No employee handled any money.

I am still struggling to understand what was gross misconduct.

Maybe it is an age thing.
I am similar age and it would probably what I would do without a second thought.

Oliversmumsarmy Are you being deliberately obtuse? It’s customer’s card’s only, not employees 🤦‍♀️

I don’t think it’s possible to explain in another different way to you how this was cash mishandling and gross misconduct.

I sincerely doubt that birds will go under because of this. In my town at least they are sold out by midday at the latest and folk are queuing waiting for them to open every morning.

Oh and our birds was cash only for years. I thought that this was chain wide

Birds is not the only shop out there selling bread you know

Well if they carry on with their "policy" they may not be selling it much in the future. Still if you're happy to have your elderly relative turned away for daring to pay in cash then good for you.