A woman who worked at a bakery for 17 years was sacked for eating a piece of nut on the production line. Susan Longworth, 54, of Bolton, Lancashire, was placing chopped hazelnut on toffee cakes at the town’s Park Cakes bakery. While waiting for the next batch of cakes to arrive, Mrs Longworth popped a piece of hazelnut into her mouth.
But her boss spotted her and called her into his office. Within minutes she had been suspended and was escorted from the premises. Mrs Longworth said: “He said he was taking into consideration my honesty and the length of time I had been working there and I thought he was going to give me a warning. I could not believe it when he said he was sacking me. He said it was like stealing from the company and it was gross misconduct. Everybody is shocked by what has happened, people keep saying they cannot believe it. Most of all, I am just annoyed by what I have done for that company and this is how they have treated me after 17 years.”
A spokesman for Park Cakes said: “Park Cakes Bakeries takes issues of hygiene very seriously indeed and has very strict rules about eating or chewing on the production line. To do so is an act of gross misconduct and, as such, warrants dismissal.” He added that Mrs Longworth was the only fulltime member of staff to be dismissed for eating, but said a number of agency staff had previously been removed immediately for the same reason. Mrs Longworth said that, while she understood the rules, hygiene was never mentioned to her as a reason for dismissal during the meetings she had with bosses.
Daily Mail
Vocabulary
to sack – elbocsát
nut – mogyoró
hazelnut – mogyoró
chopped – felvágott, aprított
toffee – tejkaramella
batch of sg – egy rakás valami
to suspend – felfüggeszt
to escort – elkísér
to take sg into consideration – tekintetbe vesz valamit
honesty – becsületesség, őszinteség
misconduct – helytelen viselkedés
to warrant – biztosít, garantál
