Tesco bosses made a \u201cfatal\u201d error by failing to search bins for a missing \u20ac20 note in an investigation that led to the sacking of a 61-year-old worker who was the main breadwinner at home, a tribunal has found.<\/p>\n
A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator found that there was no dishonesty on the part of the worker Declan Kavanagh, who she said had misplaced the money, and awarded him \u20ac12,000 on foot of a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 challenging his sacking in January, 2024.<\/p>\n
Mr Kavanagh was suspended on 31 October 2023 pending a formal investigation after he said at a meeting that he was \u201cunsure\u201d what happened to the banknote, a sitting of the tribunal at Castlebar Courthouse was told last year. <\/p>\n
Aisling McDevitt of the Irish Business and Employers\u2019 Confederation (IBEC), appearing for Tesco, argued it was \u201cclear that the complainant had placed the \u20ac20 note in his pocket\u201d. However, Mr Mr Kavanagh said this allegation was contradicted by CCTV footage he only saw played for the first time when his case was heard. <\/p>\n
A human resources officer who acted as the company investigator in the matter said she had received the notes of the earlier meeting with Mr Kavanagh as well as looking at reports from a Tesco investigation unit and still images from the CCTV footage. <\/p>\n
The tribunal recorded that the HR officer\u2019s evidence was: \u201cThe money appeared to be in his hand for a while and scrunched up before placing in his pocket [sic].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a breach of trust and amounted to theft. The facts were not disputed. The complainant had said he was sorry,\u201d the HR officer told the tribunal in evidence. <\/p>\n
Mr Kavanagh, who was aged 61 at the time of a second hearing into the matter in May 2025, told the tribunal he had accepted that he \u201cmisplaced\u201d the banknote and had offered to pay it back \u201con that first day and ever since\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said things were busy at the time and that he had receipts in his hand at the time along with the note, while he was engaged talking to a customer. The correct thing to do was to set the money aside in a cup for a manager to deal with but it had been \u201cso busy\u201d that he forgot, he said. <\/p>\n
A store manager who acted as disciplinary officer said in his evidence in chief the video footage \u201cshowed the complainant taking the \u20ac20 out, holding onto it, and putting it in his pocket and removing his hand\u201d. <\/p>\n
However, under cross-examination, the accepted that five minutes passed on the CCTV footage between the money being in the till and Mr Kavanagh\u2019s hand going into his pocket. He accepted that Mr Kavanagh had kept working for that time. <\/p>\n
He told the WRC that his \u201cgood name is ruined\u201d by the process and that he had been \u201cmade to feel like a criminal\u201d in his local town. <\/p>\n
He said he had felt \u201cout of place\u201d at his stepdaughter\u2019s wedding because he was unable to offer a financial gift, was missing mortgage payments on his home, and facing the prospect of a repossession by the bank. <\/p>\n
Mr Kavanagh said he was the main breadwinner in his household and wanted to get back to work, but that because of his responsibilities as a carer, he was limited in the hours he could take on. <\/p>\n
In her decision, adjudication officer Gr\u00e1inne Quinn wrote that the company had made a reasonable \u201cprimary finding\u201d that Mr Kavanagh \u201cdid not place the money where he should have\u201d \u2013 based on the worker\u2019s own \u201cvoluntary\u201d admission. <\/p>\n
However, Ms Quinn said she had to consider any flaws in the disciplinary process which might undermine the findings. <\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the investigation, the bins where the money may have gone [were] never searched. Further, the two other employees present around the relevant time were never interviewed,\u201d Ms Quinn wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cI find these to be fatal flaws which undermine the findings of fact reached,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not find there was any dishonesty on the part of the complainant. He misplaced the money, but never tried to hide this fact, accepting from the very beginning that this was the case,\u201d Ms Quinn wrote. <\/p>\n
She ruled that dismissal for gross misconduct was \u201cdisproportionate\u201d in view of Mr Kavanagh\u2019s \u201clong unblemished history\u201d of 13 years\u2019 service at Tesco and his \u201clack of malicious intent\u201d. <\/p>\n
She concluded there should have been a \u201clesser sanction\u201d and awarded Mr Kavanagh \u20ac12,000 for unfair dismissal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesco bosses made a \u201cfatal\u201d error by failing to search bins for a missing \u20ac20 note in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,4288,30041,12008,11823,26373,152793,113696,152794,18,55396,1015,6059,18617,19,17,6064,4194,124672,9344,149366,443],"class_list":{"0":"post-313659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ceo","10":"tag-cfo","11":"tag-chief-executive-officer","12":"tag-chief-financial-officer","13":"tag-conference","14":"tag-corporat","15":"tag-corporation","16":"tag-davos2013","17":"tag-eire","18":"tag-emea","19":"tag-europe","20":"tag-female","21":"tag-gender","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-male","25":"tag-meeting","26":"tag-meetings","27":"tag-snow","28":"tag-snow-storm","29":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115990946311129621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}