A320
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
On Aircraft X ZZZ-ZZZ1 on [date]; there was freight planned for the flight that was supposed to go on a truck for ZZZ1 and then continue on a flight to ZZZZ. Apparently; there wasn't enough room on the truck so the shipment was moved to go on the aircraft as Aircraft X.  The ramp lead noticed that there was Dangerous Goods and he planned that to go into pit 4 with 15 bags surrounding it. The rest of the freight was showing as Lithium batteries in excepted quantities and those boxes we loaded in pit 6. These boxes were not labeled as DG (Dangerous Goods). These were large heavy boxes; one of which was a television. As the lead was closing out the flight; he noticed that ALL of the freight was designated as Hazmat on the scanner and he was unable to close the flight due to ZERO bags were loaded into pit 6 with these boxes of freight. By the time he realized this; the flight had been pushed back and was taxiing out for departure. At this point; I (ZZZ ramp supervisor) became aware of this issue and had Ops call the Tower to have Aircraft X come back to the gate. Aircraft X came back to the gate and the ramp crew offloaded all of the freight. The boxes that the lead loaded in pit 6 were not labeled as DG but the boxes in pit 4 were. We ended up taking all of the freight off the aircraft and returned it to the freight house. This was over an abundance of caution and so we could dispatch the aircraft. When I spoke to the lead at the freight house and explained the situation; the lead was somewhat confused as to why we had to take the freight off since it wasn't Hazmat. I had to explain to him that ALL the freight on the flight was showing as Hazmat in the system. Due to the size of the boxes there was no way to surround the boxes with 15 bags. Because this freight was going onto a wide body aircraft in ZZZ1; 15 pieces were not required if the freight was going to be loaded into a ULD. If indeed; the ramp crew needed to secure these boxes of Lithium Batteries in Excepted Quantities there was no way that the boxes could be secured with 15 bags due to space limitations on a narrow body aircraft. The freight could have been secured with tie-down straps.
Airline Ground Supervisor reported aircraft ground gate return due to Hazmat loading configuration errors. In the interest of safety all Hazmat was offloaded. Flight completed uneventfully.