To think retailers should t charge staff for shop lifters

[Cecillie]

Dd just started a temporary job in a Morrison's local. Training was non existent and it's minimum wage . She has been worried about people using tap and pay and walking off before transaction approved as the system is really slow but there were no systems in place.
Today a guy bought £10 of beer, tapped and power walked off, transaction was declined.
She immediately told her supervisor and was made to pay for the beer on her debit card. So basically an hour and a half pay for her .
Surely this isn't legal ? They can claim it back as lost stock ?
Supervisor said oh that's nothing , someone had to pay £200 once

No way?! Were they having her on or something?

No , they made her scan another pack and pay with her card
She was especially annoyed that she bought some other things and wasn't allowed to use her staff discount card because the beers were part of it
Despite pointing out to them that if she had personally bought the beers ( which she was in effect doing ) she would have used the card

She needs to stand up for herself in retail unfortunately. If she refused it's likely they would have let it go. They can't do that.

I haven’t worked retail in ages, but we very specifically we’re not allowed to stop shoplifters. We would be fired if we tried. 1. It puts us in danger and 2. It makes it harder for the store to prosecute if they want to pursue.
If this is what retail work has become, it’s worthy of a strike. That is ludicrous.

It doesn't sound like it should be legal but I found this website that has more information. I'd honestly leave a job that did this to their staff though, what utter wankers. Retail pay is low enough as it is without being docked pay for crap customers.

elliswhittam.com/blog/deducting-wages-missing-stock/

This is not on and your daughter needs to be contacting HR, there will be a whistleblowing policy in her contract too.
As a side note, if she is under 18 and she was forced to buy beer, that's a whole different can of worms.

That’s appalling!
DSis worked in Tesco for 17 years and they certainly didn’t have that policy.

That is dreadful! Why is it her responsibility? What was she supposed to do - rugby tackle him? Not sure what her next step would be - contact head office and raise it with them?

Did they just trick her into buying them beer? Your poor DD

Pretty sure that's illegal

www.acas.org.uk/check-if-your-employer-can-make-deductions-from-your-wages

Used to be the same in petrol stations.
But I thought the practice had been stopped?!

Wtf is that even legal?

@delilahbucket

This is not on and your daughter needs to be contacting HR, there will be a whistleblowing policy in her contract too. As a side note, if she is under 18 and she was forced to buy beer, that's a whole different can of worms.

Yup.

I'd be encouraging your daughter to hand her notice in if this is true.

Contact head office and raise the issue. I was never allowed to stop shoplifters in retail and certainly didn't have to pay. Is she over 18?

illegal where i live, not that that is helpful but it is something to work towards and petition for. totally unfair on employees when shoplifting is a company wide problem (loss management).

How about posting a link to this thread on FB/Twitter/Insta?

I'm sure that can't be official Morrisons policy. Either a colleague is running a scam or that's some sort of weird "joke"/initiation. DD should speak to the store manager or HO if she gets no joy there.

So in effect they made her pay for stolen goods

That sounds like store staff trying to minimise the store's wastage via very dodgy routes. She needs to raise that with HR.

Until last June, I'd worked for Morrisons for 20 years - I've never known a member of staff charged for a shoplifter.

Surely this isn't allowed. I used to work at Morrisons and it wasn't a thing then!

Well she won't raise that again will she...

What?! That’s shocking!

I worked years in retail and never encountered a policy like that. It would be illegal to make staff responsible for shortages due to theft.