A cleaner is fighting back after she was fired for eating a leftover tuna sandwich she found in a law firm's meeting room
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- A cleaner at a London law firm was fired for eating a leftover tuna sandwich.
- The law firm and the private contractor that employed her are being taken to an employment tribunal.
- The union representing the cleaner claims her dismissal was discriminatory.
A cleaner was fired for eating a leftover tuna sandwich she found in a meeting room at the top London law firm, according to the legal affairs website RollOnFriday.
The website said that the woman's employer, private contractor Total Clean, fired Gabriela Rodriguez, a single mother from Ecuador, just before Christmas last year.
It said Rodriguez was fired after eating a discarded tuna sandwich from British supermarket chain Tesco, worth about $1.90, which was left behind after a meeting.
Devonshires Solicitors, the legal firm, then complained to Total Clean, resulting in the termination of her employment, according to the website.
A spokesperson for Devonshires told BI by email that it did not make a "formal complaint" and said it told Total Clean not to take action against Rodriguez.
The law firm said Total Clean, which did not reply to BI's request for comment, decided to dismiss the cleaner after conducting its own internal investigation.
The spokesperson added: "This is a private matter between Total Clean and Gabriela but we have made clear to Total Clean that we would not object, as we never have done, to Gabriela attending and working on our premises if Total Clean changes its position."
Members of United Voices of the World (UVW), which represents migrant workers in the UK, have protested the dismissal, according to The Guardian.
UVW argued that if Rodriguez were not Latinx and with limited English abilities, Devonshires Solicitors would not have complained about her, and she would not have been fired, per The Guardian.
The Guardian also reported that Rodriguez had been cleaning the offices for two years before her dismissal.
It said that the union is taking both Devonshires Solicitors and Total Clean to an employment tribunal, alleging direct and/or indirect race discrimination by the law firm.
Petros Elia, UVW's general secretary, told the newspaper that cleaners in the UK are often dismissed on 'trivial" and "discriminatory" grounds.
Elia added: "Many describe feeling treated 'like the dirt they clean,' and Gabriela is one of them. We will raise our voices and unite to fight any employer — even big, powerful companies like Devonshires Solicitors."
UVW did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.
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