Cleaner Sacked for Taking Leftover Sandwich
In the News
I was reading about a cleaner who got sacked because she took a leftover tuna sandwich from a meeting room.
Honestly what has the world come to.. why do people make such a big issue out of silly things. The cleaner said it was common for staff to take leftover food for their lunch but someone wasn't happy and must have dropped in a complaint to the contractor. Not even a "don't do it again" but a straight firing 
Why would ANYONE begrudge someone a left over sandwich? I really cannot understand the depths to which some people will stoop to hurt a fellow human being.
Sounds extremely petty. Thought they would be glad not wasting food and cleaning up at the same time. Some jobsworth. If it was common then sack all of them and don’t have cleaners!
JLouM I think it is terrible but sometimes there is a reason behind these rules, it might not be down to theft but health and safety
For instance , if a cleaner or anyone in the building picked up the sandwich and ate it, and was violently ill or even died , the sandwich may contain nuts for example, then the person who left the sandwich or the company could be held responsible for the injury or death if it went to court
This is why some supermarkets or food establishments dont give away food and bin it , they are afraid of the consequences
JLouM Years ago, when I worked as a catering assistant for a pub restaurant all the staff would wait until the left-over food was returned to the kitchen and ate the lot. If I was the cleaner, I would go to the Citizen Advice and get advice on how to get compensation. It is not theft because the food would have been thrown away instead.
JLouM But how would they know J, if the sandwich had been say a two pack, maybe the content info might not be on the remaining sandwich and the person might be oblivious of the ingredients
It doesn't actually say in the article , just the cost of it
Probably it was just a tuna sandwich , but the company would not know peoples allergies and i am sure if someone did suffer an incident over eating it the relatives of the recipient would take action if anything fatal had happened , so they would have rules over this type of thing
I still think it is bad what they have done to her , she could have been just given a warning, but not knowing their company policies it's hard to judge their actions
I agree with what you’re saying 100% but i know that companies want to know they can trust their employees. The line of thinking is if they will take the opportunity to do that they would do worse given the chance.
I don’t agree with it but always would think is it worth losing my job over something small
If the sandwich was going to be chucked away I don't see a problem with her eating it. On the other hand who knows how long it had not been refrigerated for and tuna could have been on the turn and made her ill. I think there are rules about how long food can be out the fridge for at buffets for example.
Sad state of affairs when someone can't even prevent food waste without getting fired 
Why has so much been written that she was the cleaner, that was irrelevant as far as I can see, she was an employee and the same rule should have been applied whatever her job.
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