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

@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.

You are seriously out of date.

Surely they're in breach of NMW regulations by doing that?

Post it on McColls / Morrison Twitter page. They’ll refund your daughter in 60 seconds as The Sun would pick up the story with glee otherwise.

Google the chief execs email address and complain to them.

I wasn’t assertive at that age but I wouldn’t stand for it now.

I’m calling scam too. The manager could be in on it for all we know.

This definitely needs to be taken further 100% not right!

It'll be interesting to see how they reply, but I'm pretty sure the store can do this if a) It's in OP's contract and b) the amount deducted isn't more than 10% of her wage

The rights and wrongs of it are something else of course, but last time I checked that was the advice ACAS gave on the subject

Now this is a post that the Daily Fail should get onto!

Sorry, that should have said if it's in the DD's contract, not OP's

Before running to the papers, Twitter or whatever, it could be worth reading it

@Puzzledandpissedoff

It'll be interesting to see how they reply, but I'm pretty sure the store can do this if a) It's in OP's contract and b) the amount deducted isn't more than 10% of her wage

The rights and wrongs of it are something else of course, but last time I checked that was the advice ACAS gave on the subject

Even if the store could do this, there would be official channels for doing so and deducting the amount from the employees wages. Not rescanning the product and getting the employee to pay with their card.

You're probably right, Doris86, which is another reason it'll be interesting to hear what they come back with

FWIW the contracts like this I've seen before do indeed say that employees can be asked to repay the losses, but haven't always said how and when. It may be that the employer can do this on a technicality, but as said, whether it's the right thing to do is something else

I used to work in a garage where we had to pay if there was a drive off. It was a very long time ago though.

Not saying everyone saying it’s illegal is wrong, but it’s standard practice in a lot of restaurants that if someone walks out without paying for their meal it’s taken out of their waiter/waitress’s wages, is this not basically the same thing?

I don't understand the comments that she should have held onto the goods until payment was authorised. Every supermarket I go in the cashier pushes the items through, I put them in a bag or trolley, then pay with my card and leave. No question of the cashier holding onto the items 😒

Surely the till will be down by the price of the beer which will show as having been sold and not paid for on their system. So even if another beer is put through, paid for, and then returned to the shelves, there will still be an apparent loss on the tills records? And when it comes to stock taking weeks or months later there will be one too many beers on the shelf.

@Fluffycloudland77

Google the chief execs email address and complain to them.

I wasn’t assertive at that age but I wouldn’t stand for it now.

I’m calling scam too. The manager could be in on it for all we know.

I’m calling scam too. The manager could be in on it for all we know.

It's fairly clear that this is a totally dishonest "local initiative" to make the store's figures look better at the expense of staff (I'd guess predominantly those who are easily bullied, I bet more favoured staff don't get this treatment).

It's also done in a way that leaves no paper trail, and makes it hard to complain. If head office get involved the manager might well say that the employee bought some beer, and is now trying avoid paying.

@Fluffycloudland77

Google the chief execs email address and complain to them.

I wasn’t assertive at that age but I wouldn’t stand for it now.

I’m calling scam too. The manager could be in on it for all we know.

I’m calling scam too. The manager could be in on it for all we know.

It's fairly clear that this is a totally dishonest "local initiative" to make the store's figures look better at the expense of staff (I'd guess predominantly those who are easily bullied, I bet more favoured staff don't get this treatment).

It's also done in a way that leaves no paper trail, and makes it hard to complain. If head office get involved the manager might well say that the employee bought some beer, and is now trying avoid paying.

@WorriedWishingWell

Surely the till will be down by the price of the beer which will show as having been sold and not paid for on their system. So even if another beer is put through, paid for, and then returned to the shelves, there will still be an apparent loss on the tills records? And when it comes to stock taking weeks or months later there will be one too many beers on the shelf.

One beer left the store, one beer got paid for. It will balance out

@WorriedWishingWell

Surely the till will be down by the price of the beer which will show as having been sold and not paid for on their system. So even if another beer is put through, paid for, and then returned to the shelves, there will still be an apparent loss on the tills records? And when it comes to stock taking weeks or months later there will be one too many beers on the shelf.

Nope. The transaction where the card was declined will have been voided and cancelled.

I work in a supermarket - not Morrisons - and I am horrified at the idea of staff being expected to pay for customer thefts, this has never happened where I work and if it did then there would be a massive fuss kicked up.

The closest thing we have is that if someone walks off without paying the full amount and it is a small amount unpaid then we will cover the difference but even then the difference comes from a pot of random small change that customers have left behind that we fill through the day and then put in the charity pots every couple of days. Anything more, or if something is not paid for at all, and it gets passed on to security as a "walkout" and it goes in the shrink/loss budget.

So if a customer puts £5 into the self scan when their total is £5.35 we will "cover" the 35p from the penny jar, but if they walk out and pay nothing then the £5.35 transaction details go to security and they add it to the shrink total.

One beer left the store, one beer got paid for. It will balance out

But 2 were beeped. It seems a lot of hassle for the manager just for 10 pounds.

I think that balancing the books is more likely than a scam, but who knows? It definitely is dodgy though. Even if it gets sorted, I wouldn't go back to work there.

But 2 were beeped. It seems a lot of hassle for the manager just for 10 pounds.

If the original transaction declined then it will have been voided off the till so that transaction, effectively, never happened but the beer left the store.

The OPs DD then paid for a second pack, their transaction went through and the beer never left the store.

Therefore one failed transaction, one completed one and only one beer left the store so everything cancel each other out.

But 2 were beeped.

@CrazyCatsAndKittens Irrelevant. The transaction where the card was declined will have been cancelled and voided, so it’s as if it never happened in the first place.

@FindingMeno

I used to work in a garage where we had to pay if there was a drive off. It was a very long time ago though.

Me too, also a long time ago - so long ago that the Police would actually help us by tracking down and dealing with offenders.

Things have changed a lot - and deductions of this type have bene largely abolished.

Seriously - this is what social media was made for! Post this on their Twitter and watch it go viral, they will soon be apologising and reimbursing her! Appalling behaviour by this retailer.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

It'll be interesting to see how they reply, but I'm pretty sure the store can do this if a) It's in OP's contract and b) the amount deducted isn't more than 10% of her wage

The rights and wrongs of it are something else of course, but last time I checked that was the advice ACAS gave on the subject

Nope, this course of action was 100% illegal and has fuck all to do with a lawful deduction of wages. A deduction of wages can only be done in limited circumstances and is always done by payroll and must be noted on the wage slip.

In this case, a store supervisor made the OP’s DD use her own personal Debit card to pay for goods.

It’s clearly a Store Scam that the Supervisor is running and if I was the OP, I’d be insisting the DD takes this much further up the food chain of command.