Employment Law

The sales director, John Kelsey, who is based at the main Camford site, has informed you of a problem with two members of staff at the Trinwood showroom, which is a small retail sales operation with six members of staff. Shelly Smith has worked at the Trinwood showroom for several years as a sales representative and Terry Freeman has worked in a similar position at the same site for eight months. Shelly has an unblemished record and good appraisal reports but Terry has yet to have his first year appraisal report. They share an office behind the display area at the showroom. A week ago John heard from his deputy that a two-month old, very expensive, laptop used by Terry and Shelly to design kitchen layouts had ‘gone missing.’ John telephoned the Trinwood manager who said he had asked the other three members of staff if they knew anything about the disappearance of the laptop and they said they did not. The manager told him that the laptop was normally left overnight in the office which Shelly and Terry had shared and neither could explain where it had gone. John asked both Shelly and Terry to come into his office at Camford on Tuesday morning to try to establish what had happened to the laptop. When confronted by John they insisted that it was on the desk in their office when they left on Saturday and that it had been missing when they returned on Monday. Terry had locked the door when they left together at 5.30pm on Saturday and they