Pungor v MBCC Foods (Ireland) Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Ireland)
• Judgment Date: 27 May 2016
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2016] 5 JIEC 2706
• Docket Number: PW205/2015,UD584/2015
• Date: 27 May 2016

EMPLOYMENT APPEALS TRIBUNAL

CASE NO. UD584/2015

PW205/2015

APPEAL(S) OF:

Melinda Pungor

appellant

and

MBCC Foods (Ireland) Limited

respondent

The recommendation of the Rights Commissioner in the case of:

Melinda Pungor

and

MBCC Foods (Ireland) Limited

under

UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACTS 1977 TO 2007

PAYMENT OF WAGES ACT 1991

I certify that the Tribunal

(Division of Tribunal)

Chairman: Ms N. O'Carroll-Kelly BL

Members: Mr F. Moloney

Mr A. Butler

heard this appeal at Dublin on 27th May 2016

1 This case came before the Tribunal by way of an employee appealing the recommendation of a Rights Commissioner under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2007, (ref: r-147064-ud-14/JT) and a decision under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 (ref: r-149183, 149185-pw-14/JT).

The determination of the Tribunal was as follows:-

2 The appellant is a Hungarian national. A Tribunal appointed interpreter was present for the hearing. The appellant's representative accepted that the appeal under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 was not served to the other side as set out in section 7(2)b of the Act. The respondent undertook to pay a stated amount of unpaid wages.

Summary of Respondent's Evidence:

3 The respondent operates a chain of approximately 100 coffee shops. The brand also operates in the UK. A loyalty club card scheme was introduced whereby customers receive four points for every €1 spent with each point having a 1 cent value. Employees are not permitted to have a club card as they already receive a 50% discount on food and free coffee and tea.

4 A case in Northern Ireland arose where an employee was abusing the club card scheme which led the then Marketing Manager to carry out an audit of the club card scheme in all of the respondent's stores. This led him to discover a number of unusual transactions which were all associated with the appellant's employee swipe card (used when operating the till). She worked in a Dublin branch. The swipe card policy was detailed in the claimant's contract and specified that each employee is responsible for their own swipe card and under no circumstances should they use another employee's swipe card. €374.86 had been amassed on various cards and further transferred to different cards, €134.00 of which had been redeemed. The theft was reported to An Garda Síochána. No conviction has been made. Employees can manually transfer balances to different cards or add on points from receipts not previously used. He reported...