A former Epicurean supermarket employee has failed in her unfair dismissal claim after the Industrial Court ruled that the company acted lawfully in terminating her employment over the misuse of its staff loyalty card programme.
According to Antigua News Room, the court delivered its decision on May 22, finding that Narshebar Richards, who worked as a bag carrier and packer, violated company policy by accepting customer loyalty points onto her staff card — a practice she had previously been warned, in writing, was fraudulent and could result in dismissal.
The case originated from an internal investigation conducted in January 2015, which revealed that points valued at EC$47.38 had been credited to Richards' loyalty card through customer transactions. Richards acknowledged that on at least one occasion, a customer had offered her loyalty points in lieu of a cash tip.
The court rejected her argument that the customer's consent made the transaction permissible. In its ruling, the court held that a customer has no authority to override the terms of an employee's contract of employment. The court also dismissed the contention that dismissal was a disproportionate penalty given the modest value of the points involved, emphasising that the matter was fundamentally one of trust and integrity, not monetary amount.
While the court acknowledged certain shortcomings in Epicurean's investigative process — notably the company's failure to produce video footage related to some of the flagged transactions — it determined that the single admitted incident was sufficient on its own to justify the dismissal.
The court ultimately concluded that Epicurean had reasonable grounds to believe Richards had engaged in misconduct, carried out an adequate investigation, and acted reasonably in bringing her employment to an end.
