Searching of Personal Bags in work

Lord Trollington

Is it legal to demand to search and to search personal bags in a work place.
A friend of mine works in a sort of a retail business, where there are 70+ employees, not to mention the amount of customers.
Some items have been going missing recently.
The boss of the whole place is demanding she searches random bags as they leave for home each evening/night.
This surely cannot be legal???
without good grounds/warrant.
And if it is legal it is a fu*kin disgrace.
this person has already searched my friends personal bag and i hit the roof.

The Big Red Button

Sorry, I haven't a clue if it's legal or not - can't help you there! - but that is an absolute disgrace! I've never heard of that done anywhere before, and I'm sure it'll do your employers a lot of harm in the long run due to loss of employee respect and goodwill. Are the union involved yet?

Lord Trollington

i'm not to sure if there is even a feckin union on the place.. i think it may be frowned upon.
I have heard lots of stories about the person in charge and a lot of the decision this makes are off there own batt and borderline illegal..
This is not the first of many things that have came out of the place where i have hit the roof, but this latest one takes the biscuit.

Chinafoot

When I worked in a well known shop we had random bag and locker searches. I had absolutely no problem with this. Staff were having money taken from their wallets, cash was missing from the tills and stock was disappearing. All of this has repercussions on the rest of the staff and its unfair.

A friend of mine currently works in a hairdressers where there are loads of staff and loads of customers. She's had cash taken from her wallet and so have other people, stock is also disappearing. The bags and stock are kept away from the customers so there is very little chance it isn't a member of staff. Random searches are a good way to stamp out the thieving scum.

I have no idea about the legality of it. In my situation it was in my contract that random checks would be carried out. I don't get why people get so worked up about it tbh. I never saw it anything personal when I was checked and didn't feel like my employer was calling me a thief. Everyone was checked. Surely stock going missing is grounds for suspicion of all staff? Maybe when your friend has her money/property stolen in work she might change her opinion.

LegacyUser

As long as its in the staff handbook they can but they must give prior notification to all staff that it will take place

foxinsox

In my experience most of the UK high street stores have this as their policy and it is usually written into the employment contract.

Your friend should check her contract small print or might be outlined in a staff handbook.

I used to have to do searches of peoples bags and in fairness the majority of the staff were fine with it. Although it can depend on the manager and how they do it. Any time I had to search it was just looking for stock in bags, male or female staff. I know where I worked I could ask staff to remove shoes, lift shirts/clothing but not touch them..never did that though!

My bag would always be searched also... but it was always more of a quick look in someones bag/rucksack to confirm it wasn't stuffed with stock and because if I didn't search bags I could end up losing my job!

I wasn't mad on the idea the first time I experienced it, but I really think it comes down to who does the search and how!

If it's a case were the manager just decided to do this I'm sure it is not right, but I'd nearly wager on it being in the contract/handbook.

Tails142

Your employer is perfectly entitled to search through your baggage to determine if goods are being stolen - many employers do it (Apple Stores, Tesco etc), they can do it randomly, to everyone or just target particular people.

You're an employee and as such it is their right as an employer, I'm sure it doesnt even have to be stated in your contract although it probably is.

It's a totally different matter to search through the bags of a member of the public however.

Lord Trollington

Death by lethal injection is also a good way of stamping out crime, but its illegal.
If its not written into your contract that you are going to be stopped and searched on a regualer basis.
Surely these random searches are illegal.
At the moment i think employers have to much power regarding jobs/pay/redundencies ect than for them to give themselves the power of searching bags of employees randomly.
And it is randomly, because its not like everyone has bags.
So people without bags, should they be patted doen before they leave?
Or their pockets searched?
We live in a society where people are innocent until proven guilty not guilty until proven innocent my good friend.

copacetic

whycliff wrote: »

Death by lethal injection is also a good way of stamping out crime, but its illegal.

You should double check that they don't have that in the contract also. If your friend isn't stealing anything then they have nothing to worry about. Or if they are that concerned then don't bring a bag into work.

Lord Trollington

no,my friend certainly isnt stealing... i know he has nothing to worry about i know, he only occassionally has a bag with him with maybe football gear or gym gear in it.
what of the people who never have bags in with them??
Anything can be concealed on your person?!!
I just think its a disgrace, employers have enough power...

Lord Trollington

Also some people are part time, some people are full time, others work their maybe once a fortnight...on a roster system... surely the culprits can be cornered through a little use of the noggin???!!and of course CCTV....Also different area's with in the company are there also like office staff and cleaners ect...

copacetic

so you want them to search everyone, not just people with bags?

They search bags because thats what people stealing a lot of stuff
would use.

If they don't like it your friend could just go somewhere else.

Shelflife

"At the moment i think employers have to much power regarding jobs/pay/redundencies ect than for them to give themselves the power of searching bags of employees randomly."

first of all its legal, its probabaly in your friends contract that its allowed.

most of retail theft is by staff, by having a random bag check it acts as a warning to staff that they may get caught and therefore reduces the amount of theft.

To say that employers have too much power is laughable, if a staff member has more then 12mths done it is very hard to sack them. whereas they can just walk off the job.

leeroybrown

While some people may not like it, it's perfectly legal for an employer to institute a search policy for staff entering or leaving the shop. I'd go so far as to suggest that an employer could legally dismiss an employee for failing to submit to the search so long as they were very careful about following disciplinary procedure.

Chinafoot

whycliff wrote: »

Death by lethal injection is also a good way of stamping out crime, but its illegal.

Eh sorry? You're comparing a bag search with a lethal injection...riiiight.

whycliff wrote: »

If its not written into your contract that you are going to be stopped and searched on a regualer basis.
Surely these random searches are illegal.

Standard practice in a lot of retail places. Not everyone is trustworthy and some staff steal things. Such is life. Its a place of business, I find it laughable that you think bosses should turn a blind eye to stock disappearing in case they offend someone.

whycliff wrote: »

At the moment i think employers have to much power regarding jobs/pay/redundencies ect than for them to give themselves the power of searching bags of employees randomly.

What does that even mean?? Employers have too much power? First of all employers are legally bound to pay minimum wage. As for redundancies...recessionary times mean unfortunately some people are being let go. This is due to employers being unable to pay these people. Do you think taking losses on stock is going to help that situation. Bag searches help cut down on people thieving and therefore cut down on the amount of money the company is losing. Bit of common sense wouldn't go astray here.

whycliff wrote: »

And it is randomly, because its not like everyone has bags.
So people without bags, should they be patted doen before they leave?
Or their pockets searched?

I have been asked to turn out my pockets, take off my shoes and show the waistband of my trousers..so yes they should be. But as has already been pointed out, those with bags are the ones most likely to steal stuff as they have somewhere to conceal it less obviously.

whycliff wrote: »

We live in a society where people are innocent until proven guilty not guilty until proven innocent my good friend.

By randomly searching a member of staff the employer is not calling them a thief. Takng it personally is ridiculous. You said your friend isn't stealing so what is the problem?

Also, I have to say I find it strange that you "hit the roof" over things that have absolutely nothing to do with you. It's your friends job, not yours.

doolox

I once worked in a company which had searches and scanners, like those used at Airports, in place. People had to allow security personnel to scan them and search bags on the way out and also were subject to search on the way in.
A lot of delays meant there was tension between supervisors needing people at their jobs until end of shift and getting through the queues at the end of the day through the search.
A soul destroying place to work, full of hostility and negativity.
When the company abandoned that line of work, PC systems build, the need for the searches stopped and so did the searches.
Too much resentment was being built up.

Corruptedmorals

Where I work, only people who work until closing time actually go through this, ie. almost entirely part-timers because we have to exit through the staff door. So everyone who doesn't close walks through the normal shop door. If we buy stuff in the shop, receipts have to be signed by a manager, they don't search bags, they just look in them. Lockers aren't searched. It's in our handbook and there's signs up. Staff lockers have frequently been broken open and stolen from- in the very early morning when there's only a few staff before the shop opens so it's scabby that bag searching will only never get all the staff working there. Still, it's not like it's anything to throw a fit over unless you actually have stolen.

the_syco

If it's in your contract, it's legal to search your bags.

If it's not in your contract, it's illegal to do so. If shop security want to search your bag, you can refuse, but they usually reserve the right to detain you until a Garda comes along. Garda can search you.

gerrycollins

I have it in the contract with my staff (retail) and they dont have a problem with it.

It included bags and their pockets which they empty at my request ie hands off.

Also the lockers are my property ,i paid for them, and they are only supposed to be used for work related items ie storing your belongings while you work so yes im fully entitled to serch my property thank you very much

LegacyUser

whycliff wrote: »

Death by lethal injection is also a good way of stamping out crime, but its illegal.
If its not written into your contract that you are going to be stopped and searched on a regualer basis.
Surely these random searches are illegal.
At the moment i think employers have to much power regarding jobs/pay/redundencies ect than for them to give themselves the power of searching bags of employees randomly.
And it is randomly, because its not like everyone has bags.
So people without bags, should they be patted doen before they leave?
Or their pockets searched?
We live in a society where people are innocent until proven guilty not guilty until proven innocent my good friend.

A security officer or a member of the store management do not have powers of stop/search. Only a Garda or an Authorised Officer of the state has that power.

However that said if the employment contract states that all employess maybe subject to random searching of personal bags when leaving the shop they are covered from a legal point of view.

The security officer or member of store management are not allowed to open bag/handbag etc , they must ask the employee to open and they can only look,not put hands in and search.

Check with the Union / staff handbook if there is one representing the employees

taram

gerrycollins wrote: »

I have it in the contract with my staff (retail) and they dont have a problem with it.

It included bags and their pockets which they empty at my request ie hands off.

Also the lockers are my property ,i paid for them, and they are only supposed to be used for work related items ie storing your belongings while you work so yes im fully entitled to serch my property thank you very much

Yeah, same where I work, takes 2 mins when people are leaving, we check the supervisors bags too, everyone's grand with the policy.

V.embrassing when you pop into Ann Summers before your shift though

gerrycollins

taram wrote: »

V.embrassing when you pop into Ann Summers before your shift though

ahem!!