By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal upheld KFC’s decision to fire a Marathon Mall assistant manager caught on surveillance footage giving away food and a “cold pack” of chicken to a former employee waiting in the parking lot.

The footage, shown to both the employee and her union representatives, captured Shakara Ellis taking the cold pack from a cooler, placing it in a brown paper bag, walking out the back door, and handing it to ex-employee Donavan Ennis. She then instructed the restaurant’s security guard to deliver more food to Ennis while he sat in his car outside. Ms Ellis claimed she was simply following her manager’s instructions and thought the giveaway was harmless, noting the former employee had been allowed to collect cold packs from the restaurant for about 20 years.

She said the food had expired and had no resale value. But the company called it theft, and the Industrial Tribunal agreed, finding that her actions violated written policies that explicitly warn managers against “undercharging or giving away product,” offences listed as grounds for immediate dismissal.

In a ruling delivered by Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder, the Court of Appeal found that KFC had conducted a proper investigation and that Ellis’ firing was both fair and lawful.

The judges said Ms Ellis and her union representatives were given multiple opportunities to view the footage and respond to the allegations, including during a November 19 2021 meeting that would determine whether she kept her job. On her representatives’ advice, she stayed silent.

“What is curious is why the Applicant would have been told to say nothing on her own behalf in a meeting that would determine her fate,” the Industrial Tribunal vice-president wrote in her decision, a remark the appeal court cited with approval.

The tribunal also noted that Ms Ellis had undermined her own case: she had submitted a set of internal reports as part of her evidence that, in fact, proved KFC’s investigation was thorough. “To now seek to challenge the contents of her own Bundle of Documents is curious,” the vice-president wrote.

Her story also shifted over time. In her written statement, Ms Ellis claimed one manager authorised her to give away the cold pack; under cross-examination, she insisted it was someone else. The tribunal said those contradictions damaged her credibility.

Ms Ellis’ lawyers, led by King’s Counsel Obie Ferguson, argued that her dismissal was unfair, that she was treated harshly over a trivial issue, and that she should have been paid overtime. But the appeal court rejected all 18 of her grounds of appeal, finding that most were factual disputes it could not review under the Industrial Relations Act.

It agreed that, as a supervisor, Ms Ellis was excluded from overtime pay and that the company had acted within its rights to summarily dismiss her.

“The Respondent had conducted a reasonable investigation and reasonably believed that Ellis had indeed committed the misconduct complained of,” Chief Justice Winder wrote.

The appeal was dismissed in full, with no order as to costs.