A Morrisons store manager has said he was sacked after tackling a prolific shoplifter and preventing him from grabbing a potential weapon from his bag as he escorted him from the premises. The Telegraph has the story.
Sean Egan said he intervened when a shoplifter became abusive and aggressive while being escorted from the Morrisons store in Aldridge, near Walsall in the West Midlands.
At his disciplinary hearing, 46 year-old Egan, who had worked in the store for 29 years, said he had been told he would be dismissed on the grounds of not following the company’s deter not detain policy.
“As part of the policy for me as the store manager, it is to escort him out the premises – yet as I was doing so he was very aggressive and spitting at me,” he said.
Egan said he was spat at again as he tried to remove the man from the store, adding: “I stepped forward and I flung my arm back – that was my instant reaction. I grabbed his arm to stop him from entering his bag to grab something, and then an altercation happened.
“My thought is, ‘I’ve got to stop this guy. I don’t know what he’s going to do, not only to me, but anybody else’.”
Despite calling the police, the former manager said he was later investigated by Morrisons.
Morrisons said it could not comment on individual cases, but the health and safety of all colleagues and customers was of paramount importance.
Egan said he was struggling with his job prospects and personal life after being dismissed.
“It’s the only job I’ve ever had and known since I was 17,” he said. “He was swinging his forearm and it was hitting me in the neck and side.”
Asked how his life had been since the sacking, he said: “Terrible. It’s difficult to find a job. It’s difficult to get on with my normal life, it’s impacted my personal life – with my children, my partner, and socially. My last pay was January, and we’re barely surviving.
“I’ve given so much to a business where I’ve actually lived for work… but at that moment I felt like everything I had given was attacked. What we have to put up with at the front line is disgusting.”
He expressed frustration over the lack of support and adequate policies to protect employees from theft and violence.
Worth reading in full.
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“Inclusion”——-One of the most disgusting words around these days. Not so much the word itself but the way it is applied by our Political Class. ——-I have just had an email from my favourite Italian Restaurant telling me they are having to close because the authorities have reduced their seating capacity from 100 seats to 40 seats because they say they do not have enough wheelchair access. Have you ever heard anything so pathetically absurd? This perfectly viable business is having to close because of this “Inclusion”.
This country has hit a new low. Instead of a bonus or any kind of acknowledgement of a job well done, this man was sacked from his job? There are no words to describe morrison’s actions. Is it any wonder men of this age thrown under the bus by their own country and company become hopeless. I am so sorry for him.
Apparently one of The Green Party’s manifesto pledges is no prosecution for shoplifting. Mental!
Let’s Bud-Lite Morrisons 👏
Another company added to the ‘Don’t spend any money with them’ list.
Yet more cowardly behaviour from senior management in their ivory towers who will never be in a position on the shop floor to stop shoplifters (i.e. thieves). Morrisons has an advert about ‘More Reasons’ for shopping in its stores. With this gutless approach in sacking a brave employee perhaps this could be turned around to say there are ‘More Reasons’ NOT to shop there.
Or…
‘No Reasons to Shop at Morrisons.’
I like that. It’s catchy. 😀😀
Morrisons said it could not comment on individual cases
And why could it not? Isn’t this rather refusing to make a statement about this particular affair instead of being unable to do so.
Cos they don’t want to as you say…
So, to all intents and purposes, Co-op, Waitrose and now Morrisons are a shoplifters paradise. Go in – help yourself. No-one will stop you, because if they did they’d be sacked.
And we will all pay – at least those of us who still do actually pay for their goods – in ever-increasing prices. Utter and complete insanity.
Probably Two Tier’s and Sadiq Khant’s favourite supermarket
I wonder whether Morrisons change of ownership had anything to do with it. It is now a branch of a USA private equity firm, not a PLC. One of their branches is my local supermarket, since the time when they bought Safeway some years ago. Quite a few operational changes recently.
https://grocerybrands.co.uk/supermarkets/morrisons/ownership/
Anyone taking bets on the appearance of the shop lifter?
Could be an engineer, or a doctor, or a rocket scientist…
But definitely sun-tanned.
Just back from Ibiza, that’ll be it.
We’ve not been in a Morrisons since their stance on Covid and how crap they treated their staff. On this issue though I imagine all large retailers are aligned, driven by their insurance policies…
“Morrisons said it could not comment on individual cases, but the health and safety of all colleagues and customers was of paramount importance.”
F off Morrisons. If H&S was that important you would employ suitably trained security staff who would be able to stop this kind of thing happening. As it is, you just let it happen so that staff and customers have to share their working and shopping space with habitual, aggressive criminals. You’re a f’ing disgrace, Morrisons senior management.
Well said
Well where’s the deterrent? There is none. So how is this situation ever supposed to be remedied if even your boss is siding with the low life crims? It’s only going to get worse, surely.🤨
The thieves get a free pass whilst the staff member becomes the criminal. Disgusting.
I bet their Head Office doesn’t get criminals wandering in to the bosses’ offices.
Spot on 👍
There is no deterrent. They calculate that it’s cheaper to charge the real customers more than to have to pay proper security. So it goes on and we pay.
I hope some enterprising local company snaps him for a post as he would clearly be an asset to any self respecting company
Hear hear and that’s coming from a John Lewis pensioner. Having spoken to Partners in my local branch of Waitrose morale seems to be very low.
That’s big business for you. Fully signed up to the left globalist agenda. Likely Starmer will award the MD a knighthood in appreciation.
As for us, we can avoid the store.
Waitrose now Morrisons wrongfully sacking long-serving members of staff merely for doing the morally correct thing and possessing a set of functioning cajones. So presumably this is going to be the same for all the supermarkets, then?
If you can lawfully perform a citizen’s arrest then why can’t staff deal with these gutter trash in a proportionate manner? They could have special training, as one would for first aid or using a defib if someone collapsed in your shop. Or is it purely just to cover their backs in case the scumbag decides to pretend to be injured then sue the company?
Remember when this sort of thing wasn’t part and parcel of daily life for staff and also wasn’t tolerated and normalised by society? When a staff member could expect their boss to have their back in such a situation rather than stabbing them in it. The big bosses should be ashamed of throwing loyal staff who’ve dedicated many years of their lives to the company under the bus like they’re just disposable drones. That’s somebody’s livelihood been chucked down the pan and he’s got dependants. Callous f***ers!🤬
Morrisons could not have stated their position more forcefully…
We don’t give a F. about our customers and our staff are wholly expendable.
It genuinely took a heart of stone to destroy a man’s career, life and family after what must have been twenty nine years of exemplary service.
I do hope the bastard who sacked this man is fully jabbed.
I hope this man has a good lawyer.
I’m up for a crowd fund for this guy to take Morrisons manager to court for wrongful dismissal.
Let me say this would never happened when Morrisons was a family owned firm – the manager would have got a pay rise from Ken Morrison.
Hopefully with the nastiest of Viles.
All shop assistants should wear “Shoplifters Welcome” T Shirts to work. In my local Sainsbury a long time assistant was telling us that the scumbag shoplifters just waltz in, grab what they want and walk out laughing as they go. The staff cannot apprehend or even speak to them, which is fair enough as they are NOT the LAW, and could get hurt. —-So where is the LAW then. Why are these pieces of human trash not being arrested?
For all those shopping at Morrisons, change stores.