A supermarket worker who was sacked for taking bakery items 40 minutes before they became free to staff has lost a claim for unfair dismissal.
Mohammed Kamruzzaman had worked at Tesco Extra in Naas, Co Kildare, for almost 18 months before he was dismissed for gross misconduct in July 2025.
At an adjudication hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), he argued that his dismissal had been disproportionate, and that his decision to take the baked goods early because he had to catch a bus had been “an unfortunate lapse” rather than theft.
The commission heard that the supermarket operates a policy allowing staff to take certain bakery products and produce for free after 9pm each evening.
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On May 7th, 2025, however, Kamruzzaman finished his shift at about 8.20pm and brought some items to the checkout.
A cashier processed the items as a “stored transaction” with the intention of finalising it after 9pm, allowing Kamruzzaman to leave early with the goods to catch his bus.
The practice was subsequently uncovered by the company’s loss-prevention team, leading to an investigation and the dismissal of Kamruzzaman, the cashier and a third employee.
Kamruzzaman told the WRC he had worked honestly and apologised immediately for his actions, explaining that the items would otherwise have gone into the bin.
He argued that dismissing him was wrong on a human level and claimed that a written warning would have been a more reasonable sanction.
He further claimed that the disciplinary process had been unfair, stating he had not been properly prepared for an initial fact-gathering meeting, and that Tesco should have referred him to a trade union.
Tesco Ireland maintained that the dismissal had been entirely fair and fell within the “band of reasonableness” under the Unfair Dismissals Act.
Employee relations official Deborah Bergin told the WRC that Kamruzzaman had been investigated for breaching company honesty and colleague-purchase policies, which specifically listed stealing by deception as gross misconduct.
Store manager Cian O’Sullivan gave evidence that the company had a strict, zero-tolerance approach to theft of any form and that dismissal was the standard response to such misconduct.
He stated that Kamruzzaman’s actions had broken the bond of trust that is essential to the employment relationship.
In his decision, WRC adjudication officer David James Murphy noted that while the goods were of low value and would have become free 40 minutes later, the company was entitled to view the incident as theft.
He said an employee’s admission and apology can sometimes make a dismissal unreasonable, but Tesco had demonstrated a consistent policy of dismissing staff for dishonest conduct regardless of the value involved.
Murphy added that substituting his own view for that of the employer would breach established legal principles. He dismissed Kamruzzaman’s claim, finding that the disciplinary process had complied with fair procedures under the Unfair Dismissals Acts.
