Meta Platforms, Inc, an American multinational know-how conglomerate that owns and operates Fb, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, reportedly fired 24 workers at its Los Angeles places of work for utilizing their $25 meal credit to buy gadgets corresponding to toothpaste, laundry detergent, and wine glasses, in keeping with The Guardian.

The corporate, which employs over 70,000 folks, fired workers final week after an inquiry confirmed that they have been misusing the system, together with sending meals house once they weren’t within the workplace, in keeping with the news site. One unnamed employee on a $400,000 (308,070 kilos) wage claimed to have spent their meal credit on family items and groceries like toothpaste and tea.

“On days the place I might not be consuming on the workplace, like if my husband was cooking or if I used to be grabbing dinner with buddies, I figured I ought to not waste the dinner credit score,” the worker wrote on Blind, an nameless messaging platform.

In keeping with the Financial Times, which first reported the story, the employee admitted the breach when approached as a part of a human assets investigation into the observe and was later fired. “It was virtually surreal that this was taking place,” the individual wrote.

Free meals has all the time been one of many advantages of working for an enormous IT firm. Meta is positioned 91st on Forbes‘ listing of the world’s biggest employers (2024).

The corporate was based by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris R Hughes, Andrew McCollum, and Eduardo P. Saverin on February 4, 2004 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA.