… is what the headline says.
But reading further, there is more to this.
At Marseille airport four Pret and Starbucks staff have been fired after giving left-over food to homeless people AND airport staff.
Reading 3 different French news articles, it becomes clear that the “charitable” act the staff did wasn’t as charitable after all.
Many on social media call for boycotts, and I’m all for it. But also take a closer look, because the staff do what many Pret staff do. They cheat to save money on waste, and in this case they do an appalling thing by PAYING people for cleaning with food instead of employing cleaners for cash.
I believe they got fired because they use free left-over food as payment for cleaning and also giving it to airport staff means the airport staff stop going to Pret and Starbucks as they get daily free food.
I clicked the translate button on every press report as I don’t speak French. But if anyone who’s reading my blog post speaks French, please tell me if the translations are correct.
The fired staff plan to go to court, but I believe they will lose. They say that the managers knew and approved giving food in exchange for cleaning, but the managers deny this! And I believe the fired staff because Pret managers always coerce lower ranked staff to cheat to save money so that the manager gets bonus and will not be on the hit list by their superiors. But if the lower-ranked staff get caught, the managers play innocent and deny having known anything.
Pret KNOW that managers are behind this, as Pret higher ups themselves cheat, lie and steal (please see evidence here). But managers are more expensive and time consuming to train than lower ranked staff. The lower ranked staff are coerced to do the dirty work, and if caught the managers play dumb and get off the hook, especially since all this is done via “verbal agreement”. And the lower ranked staff fall for it and pay the price as they can’t prove the “verbal” agreement!
That’s why I never got promoted beyond team leader position, because I refused to cheat for my managers. But I slept well at night.
But my insight here from knowing Pret is, the staff were NOT generous in helping homeless people, but EXPLOITED people. They exploited “housewives”, “bribed” security officers and gave the rest to homeless people by giving FREE food to people in exchange for cleaning/work! That is appalling! What at first looks like empathy and helping the people is the opposite!
Using free food destined for the bin as payment for work. If they did that, they should be ashamed and rightfully got fired.
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Is the cost of living crisis so bad that people work for food instead of money? Or are they undocumented immigrants? What’s going on with this?
By all means boycott Pret, but this story goes deeper than meets the eye. Pret have a policy to give out left-over food to charity IF unpaid volunteers pick it up. If no-one picks it up, it is thrown out. And since the pandemic losses, Pret now SELL left-over food via the TooGoodToGo app, they even sell cooled down hot food whereas before the pandemic had very strict rules to NOT even give it for free due to safety issues! Pret are £700 million in debt, climbing up $1 billion. They scrap money any way they can.
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NOW Pret sell the hot food via TooGoodToGo at a lower rate to get more money. No safety issues anymore when it comes to money! 😉
When I pointed this out to TooGoodToGo, they blocked me! 😀
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Three different press reports that mention the food in exchange for work. People can do their own webpage Google translate, I just post a few from screenshots below.
1. Aéroport de Marseille : Quatre employés virés pour avoir donné les invendus à des SDF
Marseille airport: Four employees fired for giving unsold to homeless people
2. À l’aéroport, quatre employés licenciés pour avoir offert des sandwichs aux SDF au lieu de les jeter
At the airport, four employees dismissed for offering SDF sandwiches instead of throwing them away
3. Aéroport de Marseille : quatre employés licenciés pour avoir donné les invendus à des sans-abri
Marseille airport: four employees dismissed for giving unsold to homeless people
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The public is fooled that these four got fired for having empathy by solely giving food to homeless people, I’d call for boycotts as well, but they used the food as payment, and that’s disgusting! And they will lose the court case on that alone.
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If this is true, they deserve getting fired for PAYING housekeepers with free and end-of-day SANDWICHES, exploiting bastards!
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Regarding Pret’s food waste, they waste more than they donate as they rely on unpaid volunteers picking up food.
Here just the tip of the iceberg:
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And not only do Pret waste a lot of food, sell unsafe food via TooGoodToGo, they continue to food poison paying customers. And when Pret poison homeless people, we will never know as they won’t leave a review or complain to Pret or health and safety departments.
Support small independent businesses and wherever you work, join a union. And if you have employees, housekeppers, baby sitters, dog walkers, house sitters etc. PAY THEM WITH MONEY, not with food! Giving your staff free food comes by default!!!
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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago.
I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
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Thank you for reading/listening.
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Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 