Ocean Bay Hotel was dragged to court by one Omar K. Leigh for wrongful termination of his service.
Testifying, the plaintiff, Omar K. Leigh, told the court that he was a bar keeper at the said hotel and was being paid D1, 300 as monthly salary and D450 as transport allowance.
He told the court that his service was terminated on 1 January 2010.
He revealed to the court that on 23 November 2009, he served some beverages which included a bottle of Heineken to some guests which was later discovered by the guests to be expired.
Leigh further told the court that when the guests complained, he brought in another bottle of Julbrew, adding that he did not know the Heineken was expired.
He said that later the guests took the matter to the general manager and when he reported to work the following day, he was called by the Food and Beverages manager.
There, he was told that a complaint had reached the management that he had served an expired Heineken to some guests in the previous day, which he admitted.
“The MD told me that there was no Heineken in the bar. I went and bought the said expired Heineken from outside the hotel which I served the guests,” the plaintiff added.
He said he insisted that there were still remaining bottles of Heineken in the bar and one Ensa Joof was asked by the manager to go and get the stock sheet.
When it was brought, the plaintiff continued, it was noticed that some sheets had some Heineken and others had not.
There, the MD blamed him, saying it was his fault, adding that the sheet for that date did not carry any bottle of Heineken.
He further revealed that he was not the only bar keeper in the hotel and that he used to report to work from 6pm to 11pm, while the other from 7pm to 3pm, and another one from 3pm to 6 pm.
“The one who comes first in the morning checks the stocks sheet and in the evening the last one closes the stocks and whoever comes confirms the stocks and continues from there,” the plaintiff told the tribunal.
He said that he was working with the one who works in the morning when he sold the bottle of Heineken and there and then the Food and Beverages manager asked them to go back to work.
“After some days, I received a memorandum which was attached with the guest’s complaint and the stock sales to explain what happened,” he said further.
He said that when he replied, the manager wrote to him again, which he tendered to the court as exhibit.
He said during that period, the cost controllers did their investigations and found out that the Alakat Restaurant had 20 bottles of expired Heineken, of which 11 were sold and 9 bottles left.
“After the investigation, we had a staff meeting where I was given a note that I was going for a hearing to the Human Resources with my witness,” Leigh added.
Leigh said that during the hearing, he was asked whether he was the only one who knew about the existence of that expired Heineken and he responded that he was not the only one, even the other bar keepers knew about the existence of that bottle.
The assistant GM said he was going to call all bar keepers at the hotel, which he failed to do, he explained.
The case was at that juncture adjourned till 29 November 2011.