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

They can claim it back as lost stock

From whom? Stolen stock is a loss to the supermarket. There's no one to "claim it back" from.

But that's irrelevant. The staff shouldn't be the ones to have to pay for stock stolen by "customers".

This happened to me when I was a student working in a chain pub, the manager used to cash up in his locked office, alone, supposedly for security reasons. Amazing how many shortfalls of cash there were in the tills each day. Used to say to people they must have mistakenly given change from a fiver instead of a tenner. He also was known to steal alcohol. If anyone questioned it he would give then rubbish shifts or less hours the week after so had the staff under his power. I left quickly as it was just a part time job for of whilst studying, but many staff had families and it was their main income so used to accept having to pay the odd £20 here and there to keep his favour and get the shifts they needed.

@Kazzyhoward

They can claim it back as lost stock

From whom? Stolen stock is a loss to the supermarket. There's no one to "claim it back" from.

But that's irrelevant. The staff shouldn't be the ones to have to pay for stock stolen by "customers".

All large retailers claim a certain amount back from their insurance companies. They work with them to keep losses down but they can indeed claim back.

In any event is it "stealing" in this case? he tapped his card and it was declined. The OP's DD is right, the systems are too slow - they are really slow in my local Waitrose too and you won't realise unless you shop there all the time. In fact I have just tapped and walked out and only realised afterwards that I didn't wait to check it had gone through. Sometimes it's only being declined because you need to put your PIN in.

But whatever, the shop cannot do this, and the OP's DD needs to raise the issue with HR. If it is Morrisons' policy, they need shaming into stopping it (and potentially legal action if it brings people under the minimum wage threshold).

@Georgeatemyhat

This happened to me when I was a student working in a chain pub, the manager used to cash up in his locked office, alone, supposedly for security reasons. Amazing how many shortfalls of cash there were in the tills each day. Used to say to people they must have mistakenly given change from a fiver instead of a tenner. He also was known to steal alcohol. If anyone questioned it he would give then rubbish shifts or less hours the week after so had the staff under his power. I left quickly as it was just a part time job for of whilst studying, but many staff had families and it was their main income so used to accept having to pay the odd £20 here and there to keep his favour and get the shifts they needed.

Oh I worked at a place like that but luckily the guy running the scam was just another employee and I challenged him. Nobody else had as he was older. Wanker he was.

If this is true, your DD needs to learn to be more assertive, both with management and customers.

As soon as the man started to make moves to walk off she should have called out loudly after him “Excuse me, we need to wait for it to go through.” Not just let him walk off without saying anything.

And when management said she needed to pay, she should have politely refused. “No, I don’t think that’s legal. I’m happy to take that to disciplinary.” Because obviously she can’t be formally disciplined for an illegal practice.

@doyouneedtowean

If this is true, your DD needs to learn to be more assertive, both with management and customers.

As soon as the man started to make moves to walk off she should have called out loudly after him “Excuse me, we need to wait for it to go through.” Not just let him walk off without saying anything.

And when management said she needed to pay, she should have politely refused. “No, I don’t think that’s legal. I’m happy to take that to disciplinary.” Because obviously she can’t be formally disciplined for an illegal practice.

🙄 Because that's something all young adults are capable of doing. As if you saying the obvious helps in any way.

This used to happen years ago. Saddened to hear it still goes on.

For those saying this didn't happen, oh how naive you are!

Yes, abuse of young employees by small businesses in particular is hardly rare. How often do we have threads on here where young people in hospitality are expected to provide a couple of shifts of free work as part of an interview process or managers keeping the tips? Or young staff not being properly paid overtime (or at all) by small businesses.

Whatever the branding/ownership many small shops are franchises and under local management. I would raise it at the brand level in the hope of getting some support but if its in a village you might get as much traction on local social media.

This is clearly not official company policy. The supervisor has gone rogue, probably to make him or herself look good by having a store with little/no shoplifting.

Report this to HR and the supervisor will probably lose their job.

I can believe this. When my DD was a student she worked for a big company and they tried to underpay her, different reasons but illegal. Unfortunately for them I run payroll for another company and had the answers for the bullshit reasons they kept giving her. I didn't speak to them, I gave her the information. It took several to and fro's but she got her money. Next holidays they told her they had no work for her, she wasn't bothered, she knew they'd do it and had another job which she did for the rest of her studies.

OP I hope you come back and tell us what response you get.

My money is on the —butler— dodgy manager.

Of course it’s not official policy. Pressure from head office on local stores to reduce theft shouldn’t lead to illegal recovery of the money from their staff.

I would tweet them about it. They won't want the negative attention so will probably respond quicker than to an email.

Gosh OP are you not tempted to go and sort it out yourself? If someone tried that with one of my children - well let’s just say it would never happen again and the manager responsible would have to leave.

Similar happened to my son, then 14.

He was a weekend newspaper boy. The bags were packed by either the newsagent or his wife ready to go as the paper boys/girls came in.

Whilst my son had a usual round the newsagent sometimes changed who did which round.

If you miss delivered you were fined the cost of the paper concerned - but you wouldn’t know this until the next weekend.

So he went in one Saturday to deliver that day and collect his wages to find that he actually ‘owed’ money.

He told the owner where to stick his job and walked.

The shop was always advertising for paperboys/girls.

Erm that's not legal. She needs to raise this.

I hope your daughter gets her money back.

The supervisor is an arsehole.

Your DD should not leave the job over this.

Do supermarkets still have union reps? Report to head office, HR and if possible the union rep. This will be sorted quickly, it is not even up for debate. Staff do not have to pay for stolen items. I used to work part time in a supermarket. Good luck op, I'd really encourage your dd to see this through.

Because that's something all young adults are capable of doing. As if you saying the obvious helps in any way.

@FortunesFave They are if they’re raised to be confident and assertive, which is our job as parents.

And yes, it does work, because people don’t like being called out on their behaviour. People do this when they think they can get away with it, so if you show them they can’t they’ll backtrack.

[quote tallduckandhandsome]@Clymene

I didn't say owned.

Seriously?! Your actual words are ‘They're not owned and operated by McColls’.

Not surprising that you’re now lying.

And the OP didn’t say they are Morrison’s Local![/quote]
The fact it's a Morrisons local is in the first line of the OP.

Why are you fixating on exactly who owns the shop anyway?!

I just checked, it does say Morrison's local in the OP. I can't see what difference it makes, if it says Morrisons over the door then I'm sure that is how people refer to it.

The fact it's a Morrisons local is in the first line of the OP.

Why are you fixating on exactly who owns the shop anyway?!

Yeah, I never get why people do this. They fixate on some tiny, irrelevant part of the OP and blow it out of proportion. It's just really bizarre and pointless.

Why do people think you don’t get dodgy feckers who don’t follow policy in well known brand shops? confused

This - most of the shittiest work experiences I’ve heard are from friends working at big name ‘reliable’ brands. Normally because the managing staff think things like ‘they’ll never try to take us on and push this, because we’re a massive company’.

@Cissyandflora

Gosh OP are you not tempted to go and sort it out yourself? If someone tried that with one of my children - well let’s just say it would never happen again and the manager responsible would have to leave.

I was with my DD but I gave her all the information, she had print outs from ACAS, we did a bit of role play about what she'd say. As mad as I was I thought it was good for her to deal with it.

She was a shy quiet 18 year old, she is a very assertive 30 year old now, I created a monster!