The management plan was never going to work, obviously. An NVQ in business studies simply didn’t cover these aspects of workforce management. By the end of the day the situation had descended into a plan for saving managerial face and finally releasing everyone to their homes and local pubs. The union managed to extract a promise of overtime at quadruple rates in return for waiving any right to begin legal action alleging unlawful, enforced detention in a workplace.
A storm had been brewing for several weeks at the biscuit factory. The rules were clearly displayed – workers could buy, at generous rates, biscuits for home consumption but eating biscuits in the factory or removing biscuits attracted instant dismissal. Needless to say, many a box of chocolate specials was shared over breaktimes, but outright theft of biscuits was rare. Until now.
Careful audit of the firm’s large metal boxes of Christmas biscuits showed that many were missing each week. One or two might have been overlooked but when numbers reached the hundreds managers felt the need to draw a line in the sand. It was a wavy line because it was hard to see how such numbers could have been removed from the factory, and there was also a certain insecurity around the accuracy (or even the purpose) of auditing procedures. Never the less, management couldn’t countenance theft of any kind. At the team meeting the subject was raised by the MD:
‘We are being taken for fools. This can’t continue or factory discipline will slip away from our team’.
‘What steps can we take to reveal the thief? One sacking should end the problem once and for all, I reckon’. This was from an ambitious new recruit to the realms of management who imagined himself a high flier.
The MD, wishing to appear decisive, announced:
‘We will call the workers to a meeting at the end of the day and confront them with our findings. We will point out that until the culprit admits to theft everyone will be detained. Lock the doors, Evelyn, so no one can leave until this business is over’.
The plan was met with rancour but initially no one on the factory floor was prepared to voice their discontent. Allegations were put forward and met with a loud silence by all. The shop steward called a break-out meeting at which strategy was agreed: no one person would confess and complaints about being locked in the factory beyond contracted hours would be energetically argued.
Management no doubt also talked strategy and sacking.
At the plenary session the MS addressed the assembly:
‘Is the thief prepared to own up and face consequences so colleagues can go home?’
From the floor several hands went up:
‘I took the biscuits’.
‘It was me, I took them’.
All hands were raised.
‘Oh God, they’ve been watching Spartacus,’ the MD groaned.
A meeting between union reps and management concluded with concessions to the union ( noted above).
How were the boxes removed?
Who knows.
