A cleaner at a top London law firm is suing after she was axed for eating a tuna sandwich she found left behind in a meeting room, according to a report.
RollOnFriday, a legal affairs news site, reported that the cleaner, Gabriela Rodriguez, was let go by the commercial cleaning service that employed her, private contractor Total Clean, just before Christmas in 2023.
Rodriguez, a single mother from Ecuador, was allegedly fired after the legal firm, Devonshires Solicitors, complained to the company that Rodriguez had eaten a tuna sandwich from British supermarket chain Tesco, worth about $1.90.
The sandwich in question had been left after a meeting at the 235-lawyer firm and was due to be thrown away, according to RollOnFriday.
A spokesperson for Devonshires Solicitors told The Post that it did not make a “formal complaint” against Rodriguez, insisting that it did not “ask for any action to be taken against her.”
“Total Clean carried out their own investigation and the decision to dismiss Gabriela was taken without any input or influence from Devonshires whatsoever,” a spokesperson for the law firm added.
Devonshires also said that it “would not object, as we never have done, to Gabriela attending and working on our premises if Total Clean changes its position.”
Rodriguez had reportedly worked for Devonshires for two years before her firing.
Total Clean, however, alleged that Rodriguez committed theft by eating the scraps of the tuna sandwich.
After the news that Rodriguez had been sacked broke, United Voices of the World union members gathered outside Devonshires’ offices with 100 cans of tuna, 300 hand-wrapped sandwiches, heart-shaped balloons and love letters addressed to Rodriguez, according to The Guardian.
Though Rodriguez’s supporters have also appealed her firing with Devonshires directly, the law firm said that it “showed no good will and refused to support Gabriela’s case.”
Rodriguez herself has since protested the decision as well, The Guardian reported, claiming that she was fired for indirect race discrimination.
Petros Elia, the general secretary of UVW — which represents a large number of UK-based cleaners, most of whom are migrant workers — told the outlet: “Just because we clean their dirt, does not mean they can treat us like dirt.”
“Cleaners are routinely dismissed on trivial and, we argue, discriminatory grounds like this every day around the country. 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 has also alleged that if Rodriguez were not from Latin America with limited English, Devonshires wouldn’t have reached out to Total Clean to complain, ultimately leading to her dismissal, The Guardian reported.
The Post has sought comment from Total Clean and UVW.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
