Spy camera forces Dunnes to Payout

Dunnes Stores had to pay a fired employee €8000 because the firing came as a result of secretly installed cameras. Dunnes stores had it\’s head of security install the cameras at the deli counter and retail area. It was done in response to an anonymous call made to head office informing them of staff eating food that wasn\’t paid for. Staff were not notified of the camera and the Employment Appeals Tribunal found this to have “fell short of acceptable behaviour”.

During this period nine staff  members lost their jobs for breach of company policy in relation to payment of food. Karen Deegan was one such person. Karen Deegan had prior to the incident worked four years at their Galway branch. Store manager Ken Teehan defended the surveillance claiming the employees had breached the stores purchasing policies which require all food to be paid for and for receipts to signed by a manager. He also stated that “There was a general problem in the deli area concerning food being consumed without payment”.

However John Douglas who is the general secretary of MANDATE said of the incident “Dunnes Stores has very serious questions to answer on its behaviour of installing cameras to place its workers on constant surveillance without them knowing about it”.