Wendy's justified in sacking worker who gave son free food

Thursday, 12 October 2017

Wendy's was justified in sacking a worker for giving her son a free meal at the drive-through, the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ruled.

Sanjana Prakash had been working at Wendy's for nine years at the Te Atatu branch in Auckland, monitoring the till and serving customers at the drive-through.

Danielle Lendich is chief executive of the Wendy's burger chain in New Zealand.

But in June last year, Prakash was caught on camera giving away free food.

The restaurant's district manager, Anjana Prasad, recognised the person Prakash was giving food to was her son, Shiveen, who had previously worked there.

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Normally a customer would place their order through the speaker box, but Prakash's son placed his order directly at the drive-through window.

After seeing the footage, the branch manager, Cathy Matthews, held a meeting to discuss the incident, but Prakash denied she had given away food.

That same day, Prakash wrote to Unite Union saying she felt targeted by her employer for becoming a union member.

During the disciplinary meetings Prakash maintained she could not remember the specific events of the incident as it had occurred some months ago.

She said she did not recognise the driver of the car she had served, as the video was not clear. Prakash also said she had taken the exact change from the customer and put it to the side of the till, as she had usually done before.

But in the footage there was no cash being exchanged.

Wendy's chief executive Danielle Lendich said the footage was sufficient proof this was a serious breach and that an immediate dismissal was justified.

The authority sided with Wendy's decision as Prakash was in a position of trust when handing cash and the till and the employer investigated the matter fully.