A lady is suing her former place of employment, a law firm, after claiming she was let go for eating a leftover sandwich she present in the office.
Gabriela Rodriguez worked as a cleaner for London-based Devonshires Solicitors for 2 years, before reportedly being axed by the private contractor she worked for, Total Clean, for eating a tuna sandwich value roughly $1.90 that somebody had left behind in a gathering.
In accordance with the legal affairs website RollOnFriday, the sandwich was purchased at popular British grocer, Tesco, and was set to be thrown out before Rodriguez ate the leftovers. She was fired for “theft” in taking client property “without authority or reasonable excuse.”
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Devonshires Solicitors denied that anyone at the corporate made a proper grievance against Rodriguez. However it is unclear, then, how Total Clean discovered in regards to the sandwich.
“Devonshires didn’t make a proper grievance against Gabriela or ask for any motion to be taken against her. Total Clean carried out their very own investigation and the choice to dismiss Gabriela was taken with none input or influence from Devonshires in any respect,” a representative for the firm told the outlet. “That is a non-public matter between Total Clean and Gabriela, but we’ve made clear to Total Clean that we’d not object, as we never have done, to Gabriela attending and dealing on our premises if Total Clean changes its position.”
Upon the news of Rodriguez’s firing, dozens of members of the United Voices of the World Union rallied and showed their support by standing outside of the Devonshires offices with cans of tuna, wrapped sandwiches, balloons, and letters all addressed to Rodriguez.
“Cleaners are routinely dismissed on trivial and, we argue, discriminatory grounds like this daily across the country. Many describe feeling treated ‘just like the dirt they clean’ and Gabriela is one in every of them. We’ll raise our voices and unite to fight any employer – even big powerful corporations like Devonshires Solicitors,” the General Secretary of UVW, Petros Elia, told The Guardian. “Simply because we clean their dirt, doesn’t mean they’ll treat us like dirt.”
Rodriguez is a mother of two and originally from Ecuador.
In accordance with the UVW’s Instagram page, the organization “left the sandwiches with reception and demanded a gathering with management, which was agreed to by the CEO and a partner of the firm,” though Devonshires didn’t publicly confirm if or when the meeting was happening.
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Total Clean is being served under claims of “unfair dismissal” and “direct race discrimination” while Devonshires Solicitors is being hit with allegations of “direct and/or indirect race discrimination.”
Total Clean didn’t immediately reply to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.