A Dutch employee fired for turning off his webcam during work hours was awarded €75,000 by a Dutch court for wrongful termination.
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The employee worked for the Rijswijk branch of Chetu Inc., a software company based in Miramar, Florida. According to NL Times, the man was hired in January 2019 and earned 70,000 euros annually. During that time, he was mandated to attend a virtual training called a “Corrective Action Program” and told to remain logged in for the entire workday with his webcam on. However, he told his employer that he didn’t feel comfortable with being monitored for nine hours.
“This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That’s the reason why my camera isn’t on. You can already monitor all activities on my laptop, and I am sharing my screen,” he explained to his employer. He was fired on August 26 for “refusing to work.”
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He addressed the situation with the Zeeland-West Brabant court in Tilburg and said his former employer didn’t give an urgent reason to justify his termination. The court agreed in his favor and said there wasn’t any evidence that he refused to work.
“The employer has not made it clear enough about the reasons for the dismissal. Moreover, there has been no evidence of a refusal to work, nor was there a reasonable instruction. Instruction to leave the camera on is contrary to the employee’s right to respect for his private life,”
He further explained that the webcam wouldn’t make a difference if he worked in the office. After concluding the hearing, court officials said the webcam was an intrusive measure of the employee’s privacy rights. Chetu Inc. was ordered to pay the man 2,700 euros in unpaid salary, 8,375 euros for wrongful termination, 9,500 euros in worker transition assistance, and 50,000 euros in compensation. The company was additionally ordered to pay their former employee for 23 vacation days and a penalty for failing to issue a pay stub.