Address TESCO-Discrimination in the Workplace

Despite preaching that the two core values that unite the workers within the store are:
"No-one tries harder for customers, and Treat people as we like to be treated." according to Tesco PLC's website, in reality often these work ethics are ignored and this is where discrimination occurs.

Upon reading the policies that concern Human Rights the first point to be addressed is the fair and honest treatment of all employees despite where they work. I feel this supposed equal treatment falls short on the basis of age in particular. Being a young worker myself I feel that there is a lack of respect and have experienced unfair treatment, such as being monitored. I feel that if the management are to monitor workers then it should be more equally enforced over age groups, as many young people have complained that it is young people in particular that are "watched".

In all fairness some young people do need to be watched if they are falling short of expected standards constantly, yet it is often noted by customers that the standard of customer service on the check-outs is falling short time and time again and not delivering the "Every Little Helps" shopping experience, and in our store (Tesco Extra Lee Mill,UK) the check-outs workers are generally women aged between 30-retirement age.

When I had worked on a checkout (which mysteriously was down £60) I was immediately searched, which I thought made sense and would be the last of it when the money was not found on my person. However I was suspended from work for three days, during this time I had an interview in which I had no representation and a 50 year old man made me cry and threatened me with calling the police as they had enough evidence to charge me with stealing (which was a bogus claim and an unnecessary scare tactic).

When I was found not to have even stolen the money I attempted to start up a grievance against this security worker, yet it went nowhere and I never had an apology. I feel like I had been mentally bullied and verbally abused, which is not condoned in reference to the Human Rights Policy, and when informing a Union Rep. about the discrimination I felt was evident (as no one else had been accused of removing the money from the checkout before I was dismissed!), appropriate and necessary action was not taken and my case was not followed up.

That was all within the first few months of me working at Tesco, and since then I have seen many injustices go un-noticed, or swept under the carpet more-like as the relevant people will not admit to the discrimination that is undeniably a problem within the store, and I feel that due to fear of persecution others will be less incline to voice their opinion!

Apparently in our store "90% of Options Candidates are Under 25"-this doesn't mean that the 90% are young people. I don't know any Option Candidate that is 16-18 years old, most are older, therefore age is still a discriminatory factor. Tesco claims to "manage people openly, honestly and fairly" irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, religious orientation, though I have spoken to many people, including older people who feel that the younger employees are being discriminated against.