I was sacked from £13-an-hour cleaning job after ‘stealing’ sandwich… it’s inhumane – the sarnie would’ve been binned
A SINGLE mum has blasted her ex-boss after she was sacked from her cleaning job for taking a leftover tuna sandwich.
Gabriela Rodriguez, 39, who claims she’s been left depressed by her treatment, said the sandwiches were left out for other staff in the building once the meetings had finished.
She took just one tuna and cucumber sarnie before she began cleaning, and put it in the fridge for the end of her shift.
Believing she was unfairly dismissed by her employers at Total Clean, Gabriela said there were “five trays” of food were left in the kitchen at law firm Devonshires’ London offices.
The Sun exclusively revealed that the contractor Total Clean sacked Ecuadorian-born Gabriela on the grounds she took “client property . . . without authority or reasonable excuse”.
Devonshires said it had not asked for Gabriela to be fired and that they would happily have her back in cleaning.
Gabriela has since said the way she has been treated over a sandwich, which she’s adamant would have gone in the bin, is “unfair and inhumane”.
She told MailOnline: “I put it in the fridge to have after my shift ended, because the sandwiches were left in the kitchen for other staff when ground-floor meetings finished, and I understood I had the right to eat it as someone who worked in the building.
“There must have been around five trays with left-over food, including crisps and sandwiches, and I only took one small one with tuna and cucumber inside.”
I spent the rest of the day in a state of total shock. I felt so upset and offended
Gabriela Rodriguez
A week had passed before anyone had said something to Gabriela about the sandwich.
Back at the Devonshires offices at the end of her shift, she was taken to one side by the Total Clean manager and the company’s Human Resources manager.
She added: “They told me it was because I had taken a sandwich without permission and I couldn’t believe it.
“I went back home and I spent the rest of the day in a state of total shock. I felt so upset and offended.”
Her colleagues have since demonstrated outside the central London HQ of solicitors Devonshires — where top lawyers earn £1.68million a year.
Elia Petros, of the UVW union helping her unfair dismissal claim, said: “Cleaners are routinely dismissed on trivial and, we argue, discriminatory, grounds like this.”
UNFAIR DISMISSAL
Total Clean insisted it had complied with employment law.
A spokesman for Devonshires told The Sun: “Devonshires did not make a formal complaint against Gabriela or ask for any action to be taken against her.
“Total Clean carried out their own investigation and the decision to dismiss Gabriela was taken without any input or influence from Devonshires whatsoever.
“This is a private matter between Total Clean and Gabriela.
“But we have made clear to Total Clean that we would not object, as we never have done, to Gabriela attending and working on our premises if Total Clean changes its position.”