Dinner lady sacked for serving a Muslim pupil pork

seanoconn

A primary school dinner lady who was sacked after 11 years for accidentally serving pork to a Muslim pupil has given her version of the events that led her dismissal.

Alison Waldock, 51, told Daybreak, she forgot the dietary needs of the seven-year-old when she asked if she wanted roast gammon, and the child said yes.

Ms Waldock said: "It's a busy lunchtime, you have 250 children coming through...and she went off".

The headteacher of Queen Edith Primary School in Cambridge then spotted the mistake as the child was about to eat her lunch and took the plate away from her.

Lunchtime UK, the catering company which employed Ms Waldock said: "A standard disciplinary procedure ensued which resulted in her being dismissed for gross misconduct."

Seems a little harsh?

Bandwagon jumper and UKIP leader Nigel Farage said "The reason that Alison's been sacked is that we're so terrified in this country of causing offence to anybody, particularly the Muslim religion.

Asked if he was jumping on a political bandwagon, he said: "No, I think it's important, because I think actually what's been happening with this whole politically correct agenda is lots of decent ordinary people are losing their jobs and paying the price for us being terrified of causing offence. Would Alison have been sacked if she mistakenly served a vegetarian meat? I think not."

Inayat Bunglawala, founder of campaign group Muslims4UK, told the same programme that the sacking, for a one-off mistake, was, on the face of it, an overreaction.

He said: "If mistakes are made, then we'd expect employers to resolve this in a sensible manner."

daviesee

seanoconn wrote:

...........Inayat Bunglawala, founder of campaign group Muslims4UK, told the same programme that the sacking, for a one-off mistake, was, on the face of it, an overreaction.

He said: "If mistakes are made, then we'd expect employers to resolve this in a sensible manner."

She should be reinstated and that should be an end of it.
Overreaction indeed.

me-109

Somewhere there's an extremist group that reckon she should be stoned for this smear on their religion. Possibly.

ballysmate

A dinner lady's job is to serve food, it is not her responsibility to check on the dietary requirements of 250 children. The exception being a severe nut allergy for instance, and anything that could cause a health issue.
From my understanding, the child agreed that they wanted the gammon and that is what she was given.
It is certainly not a dinner lady's responsibility to continue religious indoctrination of children, whatever the religion concerned.
This case should have gone no further than the head saying to the dinnerlady, 'Take care what you serve child X, their parents have requested that she not eat pork. Try to remember in future.
In a similar vein, I am assuming that the other meat on offer would be halal. Why should the other children have to eat meat that some parents would not be comfortable with.
Would a dinnerlady be disciplined for serving such meat to children, whose parents didn't want it? No she wouldn't and neither should she. Her job is to serve dinners and not cater (sorry) for kid's indoctrination.

markhewitt1978

Wow. A word in her ear was all that was needed. At MAXIMUM a formal written warning. Remember the pupil did say that they wanted the gammon. Yes he's only 8 but, personal choice must come into it?

Mikey23

Seems like a gross over reaction to a simple mistake that did not harm anybody

markhewitt1978

Mikey23 wrote:

Seems like a gross over reaction to a simple mistake that did not harm anybody

There does seem to be a lot of situations where offence is taken on behalf of someone who may be offended. A dinner lady gets sacked for an honest mistake, and yet we have taxi and bus drivers cutting up cyclists all over the place and nothing is done.

dynamicbrick

If said dinner lady was employed directly by the school, then at most she'd have got a verbal warning.

However, said dinner lady is employed by a sub-contractor to the LEA. The sub-contractor will be terrified of losing the contract and therefore acted in a manner which it hoped would avoid any backlash and potential loss of contract. Mainly this action will have been down to the fact that the LEA will be stuffed to the gills with clones of Diane Abbott.

the playing mantis

good old nige will sort it out.

alan_sherman

Reminds me of a university holiday many moons ago. My mate was a waiter, doing kids meals. There was a menu change to sausages, which the kids loved. Their Jewish parents weren't as happy :shock:

Mate got a warning which seems reasonable.

Alitogata

Overreaction certainly. This child perhaps has already eaten pork even without know it judging from how some of us have eat horse meat, that it was labeled as lamb. What did he the headteacher who sucked the dinner lady thought? That he was about to "save" this child from possible religion food deviation?
What's going wrong with this people.. Have they lost it or something?? :roll:

ianm7222

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

AchillesLeftKnee

ianm7222 wrote:

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

Hence why it's in the off-topic area.

seanoconn

ianm7222 wrote:

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

Muppet

Omar Little

On the face of it, it does seem like a massive over reation however ith these sorts of stories there is often some other factors or issues involved beyond the headline, doesnt stop the media nor politicians wading in trying to capitalise on it though.

In any case i dont think eating pork accidentally is considered that bad it is more consciously choosing to do so.

marylogic

Alitogata wrote:

What did he the headteacher who sucked the dinner lady thought?

I think perhaps it is the headteacher who should be getting sacked

raymondo60

As someone who has run my own company for most of my adult life, and consequently employed hundreds of individuals during that time, I have to say that the level of 'fear of offending', of 'political correctness' and of 'avoiding industrial tribunals/legal challenges' has completely destroyed the employer/employee dynamic. In truth I know little of the actual details of this individual case so its difficult to comment, but my experience over the past 30 years, with the changes in employer/employee legislation, health & safety rules, European Union dictats, and other influences, means that employing people is now such a 'risk' that it reduces people's chances of getting a job in the first place. My 'small' company spends an inordinate amount of money and time on employee (HR) issues, many of which were dealt with effectively in the past with a little bit of common sense. Recently I had to put a sign up in our (freely provided) kitchen above the hot water tap that says 'Caution - Hot Water' -just in case an employee scalded themselves and tried to sue my company, which has never happened in 30 years. That sign cost 50 quid! Time to sell-up and retire to Cornwall methinks..............

arran77

ianm7222 wrote:

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

If all we were allowed to talk about on here was bike related, half the threads would have to be deleted, probably all of them in BB :roll:

raymondo60

arran77 wrote:

ianm7222 wrote:

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

If all we were allowed to talk about on here was bike related, half the threads would have to be deleted, probably all of them in BB :roll:

This is the 'Cake Stop' - where we put our cleats up, have a cuppa tea and discuss any world issues that we desire, surely....?

Tom Butcher

The school are saying it's not a one off and their seems to be some implication that at best the dinner lady isn't bothered about complying with the dietary wishes parents have for their kids.

On the other hand if the kid asked for gammon surely that is their choice. Should the parents be able to dictate what the kids eat in a state school ? Religious beliefs are privileged above other beliefs which may have far more grounding in rationality.

Yellow Peril

Raymondo60 wrote:

arran77 wrote:

ianm7222 wrote:

Were any of them actually riding bikes at the time of the incident, if not then don't see how this is relevant on a bike forum!

Surely a post like this belongs on a newspaper forum and not on here......

If all we were allowed to talk about on here was bike related, half the threads would have to be deleted, probably all of them in BB :roll:

This is the 'Cake Stop' - where we put our cleats up, have a cuppa tea and discuss any world issues that we desire, surely....?

Slight overreaction to the overreaction by ianm7222concerning the overreaction of the sacking of the dinnerlady IMO who I believe was riding a Dawes Galaxy at the time of the incident.

Tom Butcher

Can one of the mods move this to the touring section then?

declan1

I've given up hope in humanity...

Mikey23

@tombutcher... Except when they're Christian beliefs when they ain't worth diddly squat

Cleat Eastwood

It is an over reaction but its a reaction probably from white middle class bean counters who have read a study about what percentage of offence a muslim takes at the site of an unclean animal.

There was a programme on C4 ages ago, a kind of right to reply type show and a young black lady from Manchester asked why the representations of black families on C4 did not reflect the reality - the head of programming, rudely told the woman that she didnt know what she was talking about and that he had seen the audience research about what black families wanted to see portrayed on screen.

As ever the ones who suffer will be the Muslim community who, like most minorities caught in a media swirl, would have been happy to get on with life.

gethinceri

Perhaps the child had just decided that any religion is nonsense and fancied seeing what pig tastes like.

plowmar

Re 'raymond60''s comment.

In this litergeous society is not £50 worth it to prevent an employee sueing you for god knows how much. This could happen wether or not there was a H&S law.

Seems that laws from Europe are dictats where as our government never passes laws that you disagree with do they? - all the red tape that every govt. is going to get rid of but by the end of the terms there is more red tape than ever withor without Europe.

Back to OP and yes it does seem a gross overreaction to us sensible people, but it does depend on what terms of employment the catering firm had. Possibly not the first occurence but the one that the media jumped on.

My brother was given a quick heave ho after forgetting to log out at the end of his shift.!!!!!

pinno

plowmar wrote:

My brother was given a quick heave ho after forgetting to log out at the end of his shift.!!!!!

Did he work for GCHQ?

Yellow Peril

pinarello001 wrote:

plowmar wrote:

My brother was given a quick heave ho after forgetting to log out at the end of his shift.!!!!!

Did he work for GCHQ?

No his contract of employment required him to do a "number 2" before he left work.

raymondo60

plowmar wrote:

Re 'raymond60''s comment.

In this litergeous society is not £50 worth it to prevent an employee sueing you for god knows how much. This could happen wether or not there was a H&S law.

Financially, yes it was worth it - just a bit sad that it is required 'by law', and with respect it could not happen if there were not 'a law' defining it.

Seems that laws from Europe are dictats where as our government never passes laws that you disagree with do they? - all the red tape that every govt. is going to get rid of but by the end of the terms there is more red tape than ever withor without Europe.

A semantics issue, which is well put by your good self; I did not express myself well obviously. Do appreciate your feedback though.

Cleat Eastwood

plowmar wrote:

dictats

Rub a beetroot on it