Is it illegal to bring up concerns when you suspect internal theft?
I work at a retail store and lately we have been noticing a lot of red flags pointing toward internal theft. My co-manager was the one to find a lot of things that would be questionable, and we were having a team meeting the next day where she was planning on bringing it up as a deterrent but she wound up not being able to attend the meeting due to her father being in the hospital so she said I can bring it up if I want. I stated my concerns and even stated that I wasn’t accusing anybody of stealing but I felt that maybe since we aren’t allowed as associates to put anything on hold that they were putting things in weird places in order for customers to not find them and for the associate to buy them later. I basically said that if you need to buy anything, just put it in the hold closet as our manager gives us permission to do so especially since these things make it look like there is internal theft going on. My manager later informed someone that I work with who then told me that what I did was illegal and I can get sued for being accusing people of things. Apparently even though no names were mentioned, I could have "looked at someone wrong" and they can sue me. My manager is actually mad at me for bringing up concerns about internal theft! Is what I did actually illegal? I tend to believe it’s not, but I’d be curious to hear opinions.
Note: I do understand that you can sue anybody for practically anything, but she did actually say that what I brought up was not legal and those issues are NEVER to be brought up at meetings or to associates.
4 Responses
davidmi711
11 May 2010
Michael C
11 May 2010
You did absolutely nothing wrong or illegal. Your manager is an idiot for:
1. thinking that could somehow be illegal
2. not acting on suspicions of internal theft
If your company has a loss prevention division (I’m assuming you work for a larger company and not just a single store) you should call them and tell them about this.
Gus
11 May 2010
I worked Loss Prevention all through college…dealt with a few things similar. It extends from the idea that a person can successfully sue you for defamation of character if you falsely accuse them.
A defamation suit, however, only works when the accusation was public. So if you said to the group: "Don’t steal things…specifically, if your name starts with an ‘L’ and ends with an ‘arry’", you could be in trouble.
Looking at someone suspiciously, that’d be a hard one to prove. The plaintiff would need to demonstrate that other people saw you looking at someone, and it was obvious that you were being accusatory.
So, if you stood nose to nose with one person in the group and told everyone you think that there may be a thief, or thieves among you…you may be held liable…
If you stood up in front of a group, and non-confrontationally reviewed company procedure and policy concerning the prevention of internal theft, you’ve got nothing to worry about.
I would tell the manager that the store should not be afraid of its own employees…especially if one of them is stealing.
Pogolaw
11 May 2010
The only way this could be put in a criminal element was if you reported to a police officer or a judge that a theft had occurred and you knew at the time, or should have known, that the information was false or unsubstantiated. You didn’t do that so there’s no problem.
The only way a person can file on you in a civil action, they have to be able to prove that they were damaged in some way, since you mentioned no names, there’s no grounds, all you did that is apparent to me is report a violation of policy and if so doing causes you harm, you have the grounds for a suit and your manager better start to sweat if they don’t take proper action that is expected when a problem is reported.
Something does not need to be illegal for you to get sued. If something is illegal it is a criminal matter. If you get sued it is a civil matter.
Nothing you said is illegal even if you directly accused someone of stealing.
If someone present felt you singled them out and they felt slandered or threatened by your statement they could sue you. If they could win or not is a different question.