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

@jimmyhill

I imagine the 'supervisor' is targeted to minimise shop losses. And is also running a scam - that paid for case of beer probably went home with her.

It can only be one or the other. The beer going home wouldn't help with the stock loss issue.

If OPs DD pays for a beer which remains on the shelf then she has paid for the stolen one and nothing is missing when a stocktake is done.

It seems as likely as anything to be a nasty prank / hazing / exploitation of the wide eyed new girl.

Not necessarily - I maybe didn't explain as thought it obvious.

1. Supervisor is trying to scare the OP's DD by making her 'pay for the loss' So supervisor is hoping next time she will keep a sharper eye out for the opportunist thief and prevent a loss 'as it'll hurt her pocket'.
2. That 2nd pack of beer has been paid for, first wasn't

Beer has been scanned but failed payment by the shoplifter.
Beer has also been scanned and paid for by OP's DD and returned to shelf.
so 2 packs, 1 payment
It all depends on what happened to the till payment declined receipt from the shoplifter, and what happened to the extra scanned and paid for pack of beer?

The minute a shop told me I had to pay for another person's theft is the minute they would see my back as I walked out of the door.

Bollocks to that. They don't deserve staff.

ie whether the theft was accounted for as a theft or as a declined payment

Until a few months ago I worked in a small, independent clothes shop. All loses from shop lifting or 'irregularities' in the till had to be paid for by the relevant member of staff. We were all on minimum wage. The owner didn't "see why I should pay".
One of the, many, reasons I left.

She should make a report to ACAS.
If staff are being paid NMW and they have money taken from them they are no longer being paid the legally required NMW rate.
Any report about failure to pay NMW is investigated.

@thinkhorsesnotzebra

She should make a report to ACAS. If staff are being paid NMW and they have money taken from them they are no longer being paid the legally required NMW rate. Any report about failure to pay NMW is investigated.

The supervisor has been crafty by making her pay by card as opposed to putting through a wage deduction.

I highly recommend OP's daughter doesn't take her card or cash to work, or says she has no money/card.

@RandomLondoner

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.

I know nothing about retail, but this makes no sense to me. Insurance is for exceptional large losses, with average luck you will pay out more than you claim back. It makes no sense to insure against losses that happen week after week, month after month, year after year, and that do not vary greatly from one time to another. It would result in a worse financial outcome than not insuring at all.

(Maybe if you were a jewellery store with the world's biggest diamond on display, you'd insure that. But what losses from shoplifting would it make sense for a grocery store to insure against?)

Shops don't insure against shoplifting, how would that even work?

They set prices to cover all types of wastage, we all pay for the criminals

There is such a lot of outrage and troll hunting on this thread. It will all be resolved now the OP has contacted the company

For whatever reason the supervisor has gone rouge, of course a massive employer like Morrisons isn't operating that policy and of course they'll fix it

I predict a resolution by the end of the week

These types of shops regularly get targeted for armed robberies. I live in a low crime area and the local store has been robbed several times in the last fifteen years or so. If they are threatened with a weapon and give the contents of the till, the tobacco cabinet and spirits shelves do they have to pay for that on their debit cards as well?

What a crock of shit this manager is.

I worked for Morrisons for ten years and thus is 100 percent NOT policy! If somthing was stolen and we knew what the item(s) are it would be scanned at a till and a loss report would be printed and put in cash office, staff would never be expected to pay! If this was done at the SCO till they have cctv, get your daughter to go to personal explaining with her card transaction and ask them to check cams to get her money back!

If this is company policy then I now understand why the staff in Morrisons have a fit every time my contactless fails. Complete joke if so, no one should have to do that.

This is appalling. She should contact HR immediately but I’d also take this to Twitter.

@longwayoff

This is a fairly common practice, especially with garages where people fill up and drive away without paying. Has been for years and I find it astonishing that it seems nobody has taken it to court for a definite decision. Disgusting practice.

They should make all pumps pay at pump. This makes it impossible to put petrol in your car and drive away without paying, since you have to put your card in before the pump will dispense fuel.

Surely the stock would still be wrong if they scanned another pack? You sure the manager didn’t just take the second pack home?

Awful

I'm not sure this is legal. Contact their head office to check.

The environment sounds toxic so she should leave if possible.

It’s sad that she had to pay - very unfair!!

Back some 25 years ago I worked in Sainsbury’s being eager I noticed a young lad walking out with some beer without paying - stupidly I challenged him and was pushed over and was badly bruised! My manager was supportive but never changed the policy to challenge a shoplifter - now I guess it’s much different as security is usually sat at the door.
But as you said this is a small shop so probably doesn’t have the extra security.

That's awful. I work in a supermarket and they would never ask staff to pay for stolen items.
We aren't even allowed to challenge shoplifters, that's security's job
I'd tell your daughter to leave. They must be trying it on and I bet no one paid £200 for a declined transaction.
If your daughter gets another retail job she needs to ask customers to wait while payment is accepted. It's really hard when you're young and in a new job but it gets easier and tbh you have to be resilient to work in retail.
I still think the shop was in the wrong. Even if it's legal it's morally wrong.

I have friends who work at Morrison's and this is NOT policy.
It sounds like a dodgy manager taking advantage of a naive young woman who needs reporting to HR ASAP!!

Did your daughter get to keep the beer that she paid for? If not then the shop should refund her.

Not even sure how he got to the "transaction declined" stage. Usually buying beer needs a member of staff to authorise it on the checkout.

@greymayday

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’.

This.

Waaahh, waaaaaahh, McColls, waaaah wahhhhhhh, owned or partnership, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Ridiculous. Unless your input is "I personally know every action of every member of staff of the branch concerned and how it relates to the overall policy", these contributions are worth less than zero.

Just so its clear - if you google it Morissions Daily, the shops are actually McColls and they are just shops selling Morissons items and have Morissons branding, but they aren't actually owned by Morissons at all.

Sorry but this is dodgy as fuck OP and I would be handing my notice in ASAP. I've worked for Tesco and Sainsburys and they would NEVER ask you to do this, as PP have correctly said they have systems in place to account for stuff that gets stolen. This sounds like some dodgy manager trying to balance their books/tills to me. Your DD needs to cut her losses and leave, wouldn't make me feel confident about their working practises/policies in general to be honest.

Why are people saying to hand in her notice?
No make an official complaint, get the dodgy manager sacked, and keep working there.

I work in retail. We're asked to do our best to deter potential shop lifters and given training on how to do this, but not to do anything that might put ourselves in danger.

I suspected someone was a shoplifter the other day, saw him in the act, so walked past and pointed out he'd need to go to the tills to get security tag taken off, otherwise security guards would come. He ended up emptying £140 goods out of his bag. It'd take me two days to earn that if I had to pay it back.

My DH is a manager at Morrisons and he says this shouldn't be happening, is DD underage? I'd be raising this with HR immediately.