A senior Tesco manager has been accused of using 'intimidatory tactics' for sending a security guard to the home of a staff member being investigated for removing cosmetics from a shop floor, at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
Margaret Clare, former personnel manager at Tesco Dundrum, removed the items and placed them in a back room with the intention of buying them, but says she put them back when she realised she couldn't afford them.
Former store manager Gerard Counihan denied that it was inappropriate to order security manager Alan McNally to bring a letter to Clare's home to notify her of an investigatory meeting on the matter the next day. He claimed it was to ensure she received the letter promptly. Tribunal chairperson Penelope McGrath said she was "concerned" that giving out Clare's address was a breach of data protection law.
Clare, who had worked for Tesco for two years, was suspended with pay a day after admitting to removing the items on the basis that she had breached the company's staff purchasing policy. She was later demoted to line manager in a store in Dun Laoghaire. Clare said she felt "isolated" by staff in her new role and was later certified as medically unfit for work.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Jenny Whelan.
