Tesco bosses made a “fatal” error by failing to search bins for a missing €20 note in an investigation that led to the sacking of a 61-year-old worker who was the main breadwinner at home, a tribunal has found.
A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator found that there was no dishonesty on the part of the worker Declan Kavanagh, who she said had misplaced the money, and awarded him €12,000 on foot of a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 challenging his sacking in January, 2024.
Mr Kavanagh was suspended on 31 October 2023 pending a formal investigation after he said at a meeting that he was “unsure” what happened to the banknote, a sitting of the tribunal at Castlebar Courthouse was told last year.
Aisling McDevitt of the Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation (IBEC), appearing for Tesco, argued it was “clear that the complainant had placed the €20 note in his pocket”. However, Mr Mr Kavanagh said this allegation was contradicted by CCTV footage he only saw played for the first time when his case was heard.
READ MORE
A human resources officer who acted as the company investigator in the matter said she had received the notes of the earlier meeting with Mr Kavanagh as well as looking at reports from a Tesco investigation unit and still images from the CCTV footage.
The tribunal recorded that the HR officer’s evidence was: “The money appeared to be in his hand for a while and scrunched up before placing in his pocket [sic].”
“It was a breach of trust and amounted to theft. The facts were not disputed. The complainant had said he was sorry,” the HR officer told the tribunal in evidence.
Mr Kavanagh, who was aged 61 at the time of a second hearing into the matter in May 2025, told the tribunal he had accepted that he “misplaced” the banknote and had offered to pay it back “on that first day and ever since”.
He said things were busy at the time and that he had receipts in his hand at the time along with the note, while he was engaged talking to a customer. The correct thing to do was to set the money aside in a cup for a manager to deal with but it had been “so busy” that he forgot, he said.
A store manager who acted as disciplinary officer said in his evidence in chief the video footage “showed the complainant taking the €20 out, holding onto it, and putting it in his pocket and removing his hand”.
However, under cross-examination, the accepted that five minutes passed on the CCTV footage between the money being in the till and Mr Kavanagh’s hand going into his pocket. He accepted that Mr Kavanagh had kept working for that time.
He told the WRC that his “good name is ruined” by the process and that he had been “made to feel like a criminal” in his local town.
He said he had felt “out of place” at his stepdaughter’s wedding because he was unable to offer a financial gift, was missing mortgage payments on his home, and facing the prospect of a repossession by the bank.
Mr Kavanagh said he was the main breadwinner in his household and wanted to get back to work, but that because of his responsibilities as a carer, he was limited in the hours he could take on.
In her decision, adjudication officer Gráinne Quinn wrote that the company had made a reasonable “primary finding” that Mr Kavanagh “did not place the money where he should have” – based on the worker’s own “voluntary” admission.
However, Ms Quinn said she had to consider any flaws in the disciplinary process which might undermine the findings.
“During the investigation, the bins where the money may have gone [were] never searched. Further, the two other employees present around the relevant time were never interviewed,” Ms Quinn wrote.
“I find these to be fatal flaws which undermine the findings of fact reached,” she added.
“I do not find there was any dishonesty on the part of the complainant. He misplaced the money, but never tried to hide this fact, accepting from the very beginning that this was the case,” Ms Quinn wrote.
She ruled that dismissal for gross misconduct was “disproportionate” in view of Mr Kavanagh’s “long unblemished history” of 13 years’ service at Tesco and his “lack of malicious intent”.
She concluded there should have been a “lesser sanction” and awarded Mr Kavanagh €12,000 for unfair dismissal.
