Courier company DPD unfairly dismissed London employee who took food from parcels, court rules

Courier giant unfairly sacked a worker at its south London depot who took food from unclaimed parcels – because it failed to properly investigate his claim, management encouraged it, ruled a tribunal.

Delivery company DPD fired Wiliam Morty from his role as a drop-off agent from its Croydon warehouse after he was filmed opening an unclaimed food parcel and putting its contents into a Sainsbury’s carrier bag in 2018 .

A court ruled his dismissal was unfair due to a flawed investigation by bosses. He defended a “longstanding culture” of management encouraging staff to take home unclaimed food.

Managers at the South London depot dragged the employee of more than two decades for a disciplinary hearing after the footage came to light, telling him it was a breach of their rules.

These required unclaimed food parcels to be placed in the “general waste skip”. They fired him in March 2019.

Mr Morty did not deny taking the food, but claimed executives had previously given him permission to do so – and took the company to court for unfair dismissal.

An employment tribunal judgment published on Monday found in Mr Morty’s favour, finding there was “no real desire” to tackle his allegations of a culture of eating unclaimed food, and that the investigation was “marred by irregularities and rushed judgment.”

Although she did not determine whether team leaders encouraged others to take food home, she found that top bosses “failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into the circumstances” of the incident that occurred from all angles.

He learned that two other employees fired for taking food from unclaimed packages after Morty were also allegedly encouraged by management.

“The Tribunal firmly concluded that the respondent failed to make all necessary inquiries and follow a fair procedure in making the decision to dismiss the claimant and that no reasonable employer could have acted as this employer l ‘did,’ ruled employment judge Jonathan Parkin.

However, the court ruled that Mr Mortley contributed to his dismissal because he “knew he had acted wrongly”, meaning any compensation should be reduced by 70 per cent.

A DPD spokesperson told the Standard: “Theft is unacceptable and we have always had clear, safe and hygienic procedures in place to deal with uncollected food parcels from all DPD sites, including the depot in question.

“The case highlighted issues with the investigation at the depot and we have since carried out a full review of HR procedures.”