To put a complaint in about manager at sainsbury's.

[MeDadMeDad]

I was working a night shift last night at sainsbury's, the night manager walked up to me in the Isle I was working and said he is going to conduct a colleague search on me and to empty my pockets.
I said to him he will not be doing a search on me as I have never been asked to empty my pockets and be searched in all the years I've been there, I told him you haven't asked anyone else and also I haven't taken anything.
He said he wasn't accusing me of anything it's just procedure.
I told him again he will not be doing a search and I will not be emptying my pockets and if he has a problem with that to go through a disciplinary procedure. Aibu? Should I put a complaint in against him?

To be fair I have heard this about other stores, they have to empty their pockets when arriving and when they leave sometimes are checked and need to show receipts for any products that may have come from the store (this is a pharmacy/beauty product shop)

I'd read your company's stop and search policy to determine if what he did was inside or outside policy, then you'll know if you have a complaint or not.

Supermarkets do this to their staff at random these days, I'm afraid.

They seem far more vigilant with their staff than they are with shoplifters.

I've worked for several retail stores, and this is pretty standard. At Monsoon, bags were searched at the end of every shift!

Why didn't you just empty your pockets? Not a big deal, is it?

When I was in retail our bags/pockets were meant to be checked at the end of your shift. 95% of the time they weren't because tracking down the relevant member of staff was almost impossible.
It was meant to take place off the sales floor and you were allowed to request a witness.
You need to see what your contract says before you go in complaining.

Well if it is procedure then I'm not quite sure what your argument is.

Why were you so against it?

What's the company policy?

Random checks on staff are routine these days so I doubt if a complaint against him would be upheld. You had nothing to hide so why not just comply with his request?

If its part of procedure then yes, you're unreasonable, and you look rather guilty

That sounds weird of him. Just say someone had private stuff like medicine, private letters, period products or even a bloody dildo in there?!

Wondering why someone would take a dildo to work…

How many people take a bloody dildo to work IN THEIR POCKET?

mind you I’m old so who knows nowadays 🤷‍♀️

YABU, staff searches have been a thing in every retail job I've ever had.

That makes no sense anyway - fair enough when you've clocked out and are leaving the store, random bag checks etc. but on shop floor you could have anything in your pocket but not actually be stealing it so nothing would stand up as theft anyway

When I was there you didn't just get one manager randomly search you. 2 security staff or a manager and 1 other staff had to be present, and they had to record it on some sheet. If the manager wasn't following the correct process then they can't discipline you

What does your contract say? Staff searches and locker searches were pretty standard when I worked in retail over thirty years ago, although not on the shop floor and always a third person present.

Over 50 years ago this was common practice in Sainsburys. In my firstc6 months working for them, 2 long serving workers were sacked when they were caught stealing. Both were well respected staff members, one in particular was a real surprise as she was a lovely lady to work with.

I get that it feels intrusive. But before making a complaint I would confirm this is not permitted by your employee handbook. I've worked at a couple of different retail stores and it was permitted at both of them.

Sometimes I read something and I just can't quite find the words to make a response.

This is one of those times.

In your pocket? They're only looking to see if OP has things she shouldn't have, for example we're not allowed to have our mobile phone or any money in our pockets while on the shop floor.

Why would anyone have a bloody dildo in their work bag?

I used to work for Boots and we'd pull staff off the shop floor to do searches all the time. However we had to do it with 2 people, one to search and one to log it. We would never search a colleague in public view though.

This is standard practice. I remember being searched every so often at the end of shifts when I worked for Tesco 30+ years ago.

We do this in Tesco. It’s supposed to be random and the staff member has to sign for it so we try and switch it up so it’s not the same people.

Yabu. I've had this twice. I work in Waitrose. It's common knowledge that pocket and bag searches can happen to anyone at anytime. I wouldn't steal anything. It takes seconds and they're doing their job. It's understandable. Why such drama?