http://smh.com.au/news/National/A-stolen-roll-a-death-and-an-eatery-in-turmoil/2005/05/10/1115584961287.html said:
Carey Fang stole a bread roll from the Centrepoint Tower restaurant he worked in at the start of his shift last Friday night. Two hours later management suspended him without pay. At 4.15 the next morning his body was found in shallow water at Bondi beach.
Waverley Police said there were no suspicious circumstances. It appears that some time during the nine hours between when he left work and when he was found the 20-year-old chose to head east and take his life rather than west to the Riverwood home he shared with his aunt, Lijum Fang.
Many of the 230 staff members at the Sydney Tower Restaurants complex are not only upset at the death of their workmate, but angry at The Truffle Group, the top-end catering and restaurant operator that owns the complex.
They say that since The Truffle Group - which owns Liquidity restaurant at Rozelle Bay and holds exclusive catering rights at the Opera House - took over in November, staff have been treated unduly harshly.
"People are getting warning letters for being one minute late," said Leon Shafiq, a waiter and union delegate who worked with Mr Fang.
AdvertisementMr Shafiq arrived at work at 7pm last Friday and was sent straight to a meeting with a manager and Mr Fang. Mr Shafiq said the manager had asked Mr Fang why he had stolen the roll and he had replied that he was hungry. According to Mr Shafiq, the manager had emphasised that the roll had been "stolen", not "eaten", and had suspended Mr Fang until today, when a decision was to be made about his future.
Mr Fang's time-clock records show he signed off at 7.23pm. Mr Shafiq remembers seeing him at the lift well.
Mr Shafiq and two other waiters believe The Truffle Group is looking for excuses to force people out, either to cull staff or replace the original employees with The Truffle Group's existing pool of workers.
The Truffle Group's co-owner, Chris James, denied the allegation and said the company had sacked no one from the restaurant since it took over, although eight had lost their jobs when the Department of Immigration found they were breaking visa regulations.
The NSW secretary of the liquor and hospitality division of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union, John Barry, said the union would investigate whether any workplace laws had been broken, but admitted there was little it could do for a member who had died.
