A woman is suing her former workplace, a law firm, after she claims she was let off the hook for eating a leftover sandwich she found in the office.
Gabriela Rodriguez worked as a cleaner for London-based Devonshires Solicitors for two years before she was reportedly axed by the private contractor she worked for, Total Clean, for eating a tuna sandwich worth about $1.90 that someone he had left it behind in a meeting.
According to the legal affairs website Roll On Friday, the sandwich was purchased at the 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 company had made a formal complaint against Rodriguez. But it's unclear, then, how Total Clean found out about the sandwich.
“Devonshires did not make a formal complaint against Gabriela or request that any action be taken against her. Total Clean conducted their own investigation and the decision to fire Gabriela was made without any input or influence from Devonshires,” a representative for the firm said plug. “This is a private matter between Total Clean and Gabriela, but we have made it clear to Total Clean that we would not object, as we never have, to Gabriela attending and working on our premises if Total Clean changes its position her.”
After the news of Rodriguez's firing, dozens of members of the United Voices of the World The union rallied and showed their support by standing outside Devonshire's offices with cans of tuna, wrapped sandwiches, balloons and letters addressed to Rodriguez.
“Cleaners are routinely fired for trivial and, we argue, discriminatory reasons like this every day across the country. Many describe feeling treated 'like the dirt they clean' and Gabriela is one of them. We will raise our voices and we will unite to fight every employer – even big powerful companies like Devonshires Solicitors”, said UVW General Secretary Petros Elia. Guardian. “Just because we clean up their dirt, doesn't mean they can treat us like dirt.”
Rodriguez is a mother of two and originally from Ecuador.
According to the UVW Instagram pagethe organization “put the sandwiches on hold and requested a meeting with management, to which the CEO and a partner of the firm agreed,” although Devonshires would not publicly confirm if or when the meeting was taking place.
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The net total is being served under claims of “unfair dismissal” and “direct racial discrimination”, while Devonshires Solicitors is being hit with allegations of “direct and/or indirect racial discrimination”.
Total Clean did not immediately respond of the entrepreneur request for comment.