A man was sacked for ‘eating a doughnut’ whilst working a shift at Waitrose.
David Graham has now branded the supermarket chain that used to employ him ‘hypocrites’ and said that he was just ‘frustrated’ watching all the food go to waste whilst working nights.
The 28-year-old - from Westbourne near Bournemouth – had been working in the Parkstone’s Waitrose since 2017, but had become increasingly annoyed at watching seemingly perfectly good food getting chucked into the bin.
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He explained: “Throughout my time at the store, I have been disheartened by the level of food waste that was generated that wasn’t offered to charity or the employees, known as partners, who own the John Lewis Partnership.
“My first memory of working at the store was seeing four large chickens on a Saturday night going down to the bins.”
He says that when he first started the store policy was to give some food that would be headed for the bins otherwise to charity or to employees, with a 70/30 percent split.
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However, last December the rules were changed and any food that is left on shelves after 9:00pm now goes into the bin.
Now, David has accused the supermarket of ‘mismatching its messaging’ after a publication was released about food waste.
On one occasion, David saw an employee at the bakery stuffing doughnuts into the bin when – he says - a ‘sugar hit would have been helpful’.
He said: “Being hungry and frustrated, I decided the only way to begin a conversation was to protest by continuing to eat the food waste doughnuts.
“I expected to be caught, I expected a conversation to start on how to reinstate the perk and reduce the other food waste and I even considered they may take it to a final warning.”
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Over three ‘highly stressful weeks’ in which Waitrose investigated the situation twice, he was eventually sacked ‘on the grounds of theft’.
David said: “I’m disappointed by the actions of the Parkstone store and I’m sure their customers will also be saddened to hear this story.
“Ultimately they have sacked a long-serving employee over a jam doughnut.
“Ideally, I would like to work here for six more months but this could be a blessing in disguise.”
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Waitrose said that it has ‘clear’ rules on employees eating the stock, and is committed to donating what it can to charity.
A spokesperson said that whilst the retailer does not discuss individual cases, there are ‘very good reasons it has strict rules regarding the consumption of food by partners’.
The spokesperson added: “Like most major food businesses, we have clear rules over the consumption of food by employees.
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“It’s our aim that no edible food is wasted and when products are near the end of their shelf life, we donate whatever we can to local charities with any suitable food remaining being shared fairly between our partners.”
As for David, he’s now going to be focusing his energy on his electronic and software start-up business, hoping that Waitrose will ‘learn from this sad story’.
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