Q: I’m worried that an employee is stealing money and products. Can I just fire them based on my inventories?
Nov 12 2008
Answered by: Peter Done Ask a question
Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula writes:
You should not rush into firing an employee on the strength of an inventory alone; a tribunal would consider this a harsh reaction to an incident that has not been fully investigated. You must have full and clear proof and investigate each incident thoroughly. In the case of stealing, putting in place preventative measures will usually solve the problem.
The starting point has to be your terms and conditions of employment. These must clearly state that honesty of all staff is required. It may even include factors such as, if you know that somebody else is stealing then you must report it. If you fail to do so and it comes out you know and did not report it, action could be taken against you. Action up to and including dismissal could therefore be taken against both employees. All employees need to know just how seriously you treat the problem.
Your terms must set out what is required. In a situation such as this, where you have suspicions, you have to decide whether it might be sufficient to put a reminder on notice boards of the requirements to be honest. You may wish to say that there have been one or two incidents of suspected theft but they may just be losses and that if an individual is caught stealing, they will be dismissed, and even prosecuted.
I do not know what is in your terms and conditions of employment, for example do you have a right to search people? If you know when articles are going missing, and at what times of day, you might want to carry out a snap search at that particular time. If you are not sure when the items are going missing then carrying out such a search, especially if you have not done one for quite a while, will indicate that you have suspicions and may cause the thief to refrain from stealing for a while.
As an alternative you might wish to set up a hidden camera and to mark items to provide an audit trail. This is a sensitive area and would require some considerable expertise in the placing of cameras, for example, to the extent that it would probably be advisable to use a professional in this field.
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