A Greggs worker who was sacked after being found crossing out dates has won her claim against unfair dismissal.

Rosario Lino took her former employer, EG Group Limited, to court after she felt she was unfairly dismissed from her workplace at Braywick Service Station, where Ms Lino was the manager at Greggs.

Ms Lino had worked for the company since December 9, 2015, and was promoted to manager on December 1, 2019.

Her dismissal came after a surprise inspection found tuna crunch and chicken mayo containers with their expiry dates "blocked out" by a marker pen. They also found chicken and lettuce with no expiry date.

Following the discovery, Ms Lino was investigated and put through a disciplinary process.

During the process, Ms Lino alleged racial discrimination.

She was dismissed on April 2, 2021 - which Ms Lino deemed as unfair.

EG Group Limited denied claims of discrimination and said the dismissal was "fair by reason of conduct".

Multiple court hearings have since taken place, first starting in May 2022.

In an employment tribunal which ended on February 16, 2024, it was revealed that Ms Lino was not present on the day of the inspection.

However, she admitted to using the pen to strike out the dates, explaining that in doing so she was indicating to other employees that the items should be thrown away.

She was questioned as to why she hadn't thrown the items away herself, to which she said she was too busy.

Food safety documents stated how out-of-date food should be removed from the site "immediately".

Her bosses said: "I believe that you crossed out the expiry dates to use the food items and reduce ‘wastage’ on site.

"This in return would have shown as the site not losing money due to food wastage.

"I believe this was done for personal gain to prevent your wastage figures from looking poor for the site.

"However, this could have potentially injured our customers severely and brought the company into disrepute.”

In the tribunal, Ms Lino sued her employers for the dismissal, which was upheld due to flaws in the disciplinary procedure.

In an investigatory meeting on February 5, 2021, Ms Lino was not granted a Spanish translator and social distancing was not upheld.

Despite the court upholding her claim, she was not handed any compensation, which was put down to Ms Lino being found "culpable" for her dismissal.

Employment Judge Phil Allen said: 'It was not in dispute that marking out-of-date food with a black marker was not part of procedures.

"It was also not disputed by [Ms Lino] when it was put to her, that the matters identified might have resulted in the store being closed if they had been identified by inspectors."

The employment judge did not believe Ms Lino was truthful in her reasons for marking the produce.

"By marking the items and obscuring the dates the claimant was acting in breach of procedures," the judge added.

"Her actions created a risk that products would be used after the use-by-dates had expired.

"That created a safety risk for the respondent and its customers."