A man found himself in a sticky situation when he was caught red-handed eating jam tarts at work. Okay, I’ll stop with the puns. Elton John Moran (yes, that’s his real name) was dismissed by his employer, Dublin firm Keelings Logistics Solutions, after he was seen eating at work (which is against the rules: you’ll see why). The Irish Employment Appeals Tribunal has just upheld his dismissal and ruled it “fair and proportionate.”
“The tribunal hearing, which concluded in September, was told that Mr Moran was an operative in a warehouse which was constantly monitored. On January 25th, 2012, a security guard saw Mr Moran and another operative standing in front of an open container cage and he saw the cage being moved. When the men stepped away, he could see that they were eating something,” reports the Irish Times. “On investigation, it became apparent that a box containing jam tarts had been tampered with and two tarts were missing from a packet … Following an investigation, the company concluded that it was reasonable to conclude that Mr Moran had tampered with a packet of jam tarts. The product was rendered unsellable and had to be disposed of. This constituted gross misconduct and he was dismissed.” So, technically he was fired for stealing from his employer, but that doesn’t really have the same lure of Man fired for eating jam tarts at work. When even the Irish Times – Ireland’s newspaper of record – is resorting to click-bait headlines, you know there’s something wrong.
