Which ever way this is dressed up by the liberal minded, stealing is stealing. The fact is that trusted employees are stealing from the company and clearly to a significant and increasing extent (cutlery - expensive glassware - bottles of champagne -freezers full of ice cream and significant amounts of food etc etc, what next the seat covers?
The stealing clearly has gone way beyond the odd bottle of water and it is any public company's duty to monitor this area and take action when it escalates beyond what has been considered to be acceptable
levels. Prior to taking the action the company would have been well aware of the ramifications and would not have acted unless the stealing was causing significant losses. Doubtless the union was consulted prior to the searches commencing and are on record as agreeing that action needed to be taken. A couple of prosecutions for offences at the more serious and of the scale should bring things back to a level that is considered to be tolerable.