A contract cleaner eats chocolate and looses contract for the company. Should she be dismissed?

[tec0]

my 2cents

I was also thinking along those lines. See company policy is important especially in a case like this one. If you don't have a proper policy to govern simple rules regulations within the employee contract you cannot enforce it. A lot of companies think they can make up the rules as they go along. This never works... Also it is a good idea to explain to the customer that you have rules regarding your staff so that the customer doesn't overwrite your policy and create an unhealthy behaviour. You can just add it under your terms and conditions section of your contract.

With a proper policy you have grounds for disciplinary action. Without it, you will get a lot of trouble from labour protection entities. Also consider your contract duration. Labour brokers use contract duration as a controlling measurement. If a worker performs well they get a renewal, if a worker performs badly they don’t get a renewal. It also eliminate a prolonged and painful dismissal process.

[Citizen X]

my 2cents

I was also thinking along those lines. See company policy is important especially in a case like this one. If you don't have a proper policy to govern simple rules regulations within the employee contract you cannot enforce it. A lot of companies think they can make up the rules as they go along. This never works... Also it is a good idea to explain to the customer that you have rules regarding your staff so that the customer doesn't overwrite your policy and create an unhealthy behaviour. You can just add it under your terms and conditions section of your contract.

With a proper policy you have grounds for disciplinary action. Without it, you will get a lot of trouble from labour protection entities. Also consider your contract duration. Labour brokers use contract duration as a controlling measurement. If a worker performs well they get a renewal, if a worker performs badly they don’t get a renewal. It also eliminate a prolonged and painful dismissal process.

To add further perspective, one must also consider whether the consumable i.e. the chocolate was part of inventory. If one has a supermarket and sells consumables but makes it clear that no staff may remove stock from the shelves and consume it, then this would be an offence.

In SA Commercial Catering & Allied Workers Union obo Bolashe and Pinzon Traders (PTY) ltd, an employee was dismissed for petty theft for eating some bread which was returned by a customer at the bakery where he worked. The company did have a policy that stated that perishable items should not be resold or given to staff for health reasons, this bread must be given to the pigs literally at the farms.
So this employee for whatever reason decided to eat some bread from the collection of other disposable perishables just on its way to the pig farm.

The court found that dismissal as a sanction was found to be too harsh in the circumstances
A further LRA element is awareness of the rule broken, the employee must be aware. What if this employee says, ‘Well, I was allowed to make myself tea, coffee and sandwiches from the company fridge and I was also allowed to eat all the left overs, so when I ate the chocolate, I didn’t realize that I was not allowed to do so.’

How then do you reasonably respond to this declaration?
The court by default will have to balance the common law duty of the employee to act in good faith and that employers must only use dismissal as a last resort.

The situation would be wholly different if the chocolate is part of a retailers inventory and for sale to the public by display on various shelving. If an employee take an item from this shelf and eats the item, then it can’t be said that the employee didn’t know. Such rules are so obvious they needn’t be formally mentioned.

The point of departure is always consider each case on its own merits and circumstances