ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A bakery employee from the Welsh valleys was sacked after a hand hygiene lapse during a night shift. And the 47-year-old baker later lost his claim for unfair dismissal against the Greggs high street chain as well.

The incident occurred in July 2015 when Sion Donovan went to fetch equipment from the locker room at a Gregg's bakery in Treforest, Pontypridd. He then failed to wash his hands on returning to the food processing area.

At a recent employment tribunal Donovan admitted the transgression but felt the reaction of Greggs to have been disproportionate. According to Donovan he had been so focused on his next job that he had forgotten to wash his hands.

"It was a lapse," he said. "Hand washing is routine - part of being a food handler and something I took very seriously."

Gregg company policy states that all employees should carry out a hand wash every time they return to a food processing area. According to Greggs, Donovan was fired because the company was unable to trust an employee who failed to follow procedure given the potential repercussions of hygiene breaches.

"There's a risk that they might take bacteria or pathogens into the bakery and cause food illness or a poisoning outbreak," according to Gregg's bakery manager Dale Humphreys. And the company's operations manager Ivor Elcock added that Greggs operated a zero-tolerance policy on the lack of hand-washing, adding: "The outcome of not doing it is potentially lethal."