Calling cafe runners - business owners: Issue theft

[Murphy69]

I managed pubs for quite a few years, where staff turn over is high, and the opportunity to dip fingers in the till is high.

I found that often when the till is down small amounts it is a matter of honest mistakes (not necassarily the sales persons either, the manager/cashier that prepared the float, or cleared the till during the day etc will make mistakes as well).

A till that comes in consistently 'over' is more often indicative of some one with their fingers in the till. Say a coffee is $3.20, the customer hands over a fiver, the server gives correct change but doesn't ring up the sale. (Or, rings up a sale for one coffee, when the customer bought two etc).

At this point the server either extracts their 'take' or leaves it in the till to extract later and keeps a mental 'tab' of how much extra is in the till.

If they leave it in the till, they will round the figure down to make the mental maths easier. At some time during the day, when its a nice round figure they will extract some notes to the value of what they have accrued. But the till will be up at the end of the day because the server has been rounding down. Also if the till is balanced off at unexpected times you might find a large sum of money in the till.

The other method is that they take the amount out immediately. Again, for ease they will take a rounded amount (in the case about $3) in order to not have a pocket full of small change, as well as for speed. Again, the till will be up.

Doesn't mean you will catch then, but it can help build a picture.

Murphy
(next week: How bottle shop attendants can make money from people buying six packs with little chance of being caught, and why bar staff might smuggle alcohol IN to work)

 

[pennyk]

one of our overseas branches has just been caught up in a scandal...someone has been signing off on over-charged invoices and double up invoices from specific companies over a period of more than 5 years, and then getting kick backs. It looks like his kick backs have amounted to over a million dollars (so the total amount of the scam was probably 10x this amount!!) ouch!!
you wonder whether he started out small, like putting his hand in the till, and because he got away with it, he took bigger and bigger risks. So important to nip this type of behaviour in the bud.

Pen

 

[Sunfish]

What are the rules when it come to sacking employees?

As far as I know, any small business (less than 100 employees I thing) can sack a full time employee for any reason, no warnings required.
I don't believe there are any unfair dismissal rules for small business right now, could be wrong.
Simply, cutting back staff to reduce costs/hardship can be a reason.
Depending on how long they have been employed, maybe a weeks pay has to be paid to the employee.

Are you qualified to give that legal opinion? If not where are the disclaimers?

Employers have come unstuck when sacking people on video evidence. They MUST take advice from the authorities and/or their retail association and be sure all the "I"s are dotted etc.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Are you qualified to give that legal opinion? If not where are the disclaimers?

Employers have come unstuck when sacking people on video evidence. They MUST take advice from the authorities and/or their retail association and be sure all the "I"s are dotted etc.

Sorry for giving an opinion ???
I forgot to add the employed for less than 12 months and 15 employees thing for small business...

Do people have to be qualified for giving opinions now?
Or qualified for giving advice?
Are they the same thing?

 

[JoshyBoi]

(next week: How bottle shop attendants can make money from people buying six packs with little chance of being caught, and why bar staff might smuggle alcohol IN to work)

Very good points...seen it all done before!

Looking forward to your next installments

 

[geoffw]

For the first time in this thread, talking about unfair dismissal- a reference:

http://www.fwa.gov.au/index.cfm?pagename=dismissalsabout#whatis

As well as dismissal, there may be requirements for notice- check the laws. If there is an approved agreement in place, they may override the award. My agreement actually gives a casual employee a right to notice which they do not have under the award. But likewise they owe me a right to notice. The notice for casuals though is just three days either way.

There are generally provisions for grounds for dismissal- my agreement states "for refusal
of duty, neglect of duties, serious or willful misconduct, theft or fraud, violation
of food safety requirements, discrimination, harassment or intimidation, and not
following safe work practices".

It is very worth while to pay an annual fee for employment advice. It is a minefield. As Sunfish says, employers have come unstuck. Not just on sacking on video evidence.

An employee who is entitled to notice may be paid in lieu of notice.



BTW, welcome back Sunfish. Good to see you here again.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

As I said before, sack them!!!!!!!!

They take you to tribunal, you lose, you pay them out, they have gone, problem gone and you will save money in the long run

GG

 

[geoffw]

Some technical ideas.

You don't need cables for extra cameras- there are wireless models around. Although I have a wireless network which no longer works with wireless cameras.

A DVR (as mentioned) can be linked to a computer, and run from the computer (depending on the models and connections).

If the computer has an ADSL connection, it is possible to access that connection remotely. I use logmein (see logmein.com) which, when installed on the camera computer, allows me to log in from the net to view the cameras. (There is a free version- or the paid version allows me access to five computers for about $50pa). For myself, I have access to two stores, two computers on each store. That gives me access to the cameras and to the register. I can actually control the register if I need to.

There is a dedicated iphone app which gives me access from the iphone. So I can dial in from anywhere to look at what is happening in both of my shops. I used it yesterday to find that one shop had been closed early, with the employees claiming the later close.

 

[geoffw]

As I said before, sack them!!!!!!!!

They take you to tribunal, you lose, you pay them out, they have gone, problem gone and you will save money in the long run

Be careful with that approach. If you've done it the wrong way you may have to reemploy them.

From the previously quoted site-

If Fair Work Australia is satisfied an employee was unfairly dismissed then it may order the employee's reinstatement, or the payment of compensation to the employee if satisfied that reinstatement is inappropriate.

 

[kathryn d]

This is sooo wrong.
An employer should be permitted to hire and fire whom ever they want.

Maybe hire a few more people, and then after a week or two, cut down on the hours of the "suspect" and she will quit.

Is that permitted?

 

[geoffw]

This is sooo wrong.
An employer should be permitted to hire and fire whom ever they want.

Maybe hire a few more people, and then after a week or two, cut down on the hours of the "suspect" and she will quit.

Is that permitted?

It depends on the conditions that an employee was hired.

A casual employee does not accumulate leave entitlements- but does not have security of employment. On the other hand, the hourly rate of a casual is well above that of a permanent.

A full time or part time employee has security of hours employed, has a lower hourly rate, and accumulates leave entitlements.

A casual employee gets a higher hourly rate (it was 15% but I believe it's gone higher in the awards since my agreement).

As an employer I prefer casual employees, and most employees prefer the casual arrangement because they are generally young, fit and healthy and prefer to get more money in hand. And they also prefer the ability to quit quickly. All employees are given a choice, and very few choose a permanent arrangement.

 

[Corey Batt]

Only if they're casual.

Just alert the staff that you're aware of the situation that someone is stealing from the till and will be maintaining a presence as to find out who is doing such actions, and remind them of the consequences. You have to approach this correctly, transparency keeps your *** covered, while trying to coerce and manipulate will bite you in the end.

Edit: Geoff, I think the normal casual loading is 20% now.

 

[BayView]

This is sooo wrong.
An employer should be permitted to hire and fire whom ever they want.

Welcome to Aus!

I tell ya; we as a Country are becoming so clever at protecting employees "rights", we will protect ourselves into oblivion.

While employees and Unions are slapping each other on the back, laughing and saying; "how good is this!?" every time they win an unfair dismissal case, or win another public holiday concession, or win another penalty rate concession, or more paid sick leave, or more paid maternity leave, more employer contributed super, more Worksafe requirements and so on and so on....

The result is very simple my friends - higher costs to the employer.

The on-flow of this is also simple; more cost to the consumer, and if this isn't achievable - less staff, and less jobs.

 

[willair]

This person works in the business 7 days a week and when she took a week off work the takings where considerably less. Example Fridays usually bringing in $3,000 but on the week she was off $1,200.

Might have just been friday the 13th,her staff must have some front
to look her in the face ,i don't know how these people sl;eep at night..

 

[Corey Batt]

Welcome to Aus!

I tell ya; we as a Country are becoming so clever at protecting employees "rights", we will protect ourselves into oblivion.

While employees and Unions are slapping each other on the back, laughing and saying; "how good is this!?" every time they win an unfair dismissal case, or win another public holiday concession, or win another penalty rate concession, or more paid sick leave, or more paid maternity leave, more employer contributed super, more Worksafe requirements and so on and so on....

The result is very simple my friends - higher costs to the employer.

The on-flow of this is also simple; more cost to the consumer, and if this isn't achievable - less staff, and less jobs.

We should, totally like, just get rid of all workplace laws. Yeah.

Extremism of views is what gets us wanky unions, so lets not head the other way either.

 

[The Y-man]

Automation..... like some of those places in Japan where you walk in, place your order in a machine, pay the machine, which spits out your ticket and change, you take a seat and food arrives at your table.....

While this sounds cold and impersonal, there's always a human assistant standing next to the machine to assist you - so you feel looked after. The point being of course that the human assistant can't knock the money off because the order won't go thru to the kitchen.....


The Y-man

 

[JoshyBoi]

Automation..... like some of those places in Japan where you walk in, place your order in a machine, pay the machine, which spits out your ticket and change, you take a seat and food arrives at your table.....

While this sounds cold and impersonal, there's always a human assistant standing next to the machine to assist you - so you feel looked after. The point being of course that the human assistant can't knock the money off because the order won't go thru to the kitchen.....


The Y-man

ahh and also stops people making modifications to your menu!

 

[zeph34]

Automation..... like some of those places in Japan where you walk in, place your order in a machine, pay the machine, which spits out your ticket and change, you take a seat and food arrives at your table.....

When I was in Japan last year, my local supermarket (and indeed, a lot of them), had a till where they put in the cash, and it spits out the change. I imagine if there was a problem, a supervisor would open the till. Perfect, no chance of wrong change (the staff didn't type in how much money was going in, it just worked it out) and no chance of 'hands in the till'.

Looked into getting something like this back here in Australia, appears there's nothing available

 

[Corey Batt]

Yeah, automatons are definitely the best solution for this problem.

Just confront the employee, if you don't have visible evidence state to the entire staff that till scalping has been noticed and will be investigated. Jeez.

 

[The Y-man]

Yeah, automatons are definitely the best solution for this problem.

Too many Deceptacons going around

The Y-man