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A court in Madrid has ordered a company to compensate ex-employee 48,899.49 euros for firing him on the grounds that he was running personal errands during his working hours. The company's decision to dismiss the worker was also deemed unjustified.
The man had been working for the Madrid-based company, specialising in fire safety maintenance, since 2021. He had to meet a performance target of minimum 18 inspections a day. His contract stated that he would receive a temporary production allowance solely and exclusively for the time he performed these functions, provided that he carried out the 18 inspections. In addition, he would be given an extra 12 euros per day if he surpassed the threshold. However, the employee limited himself to 18 inspections per day, which left him far behind his colleagues, who would sometimes carry out as many as 40 daily inspections.
When the company discovered the discrepancy, it hired private detectives to investigate him. According to the detectives, who would follow the employee during the course of the day, he took the opportunity to go shopping within his working hours. "At 9.03am, he got into the vehicle and drove around until he arrived at the La Dehesa shopping centre in Alcalá de Henares, where he parked the vehicle and went into the shopping centre. He was inside a shop from 10.19 to 10.24, after which he went to another shop where he stayed from 10.26 to 10.30. He then took his vehicle and drove to Carrefour shop. He remained inside the shop from 10.42 to 10.51. At 11.06, he parked in the car park of a hypermarket in Azuqueca de Henares and drove off again a few minutes later in direction of Madrid."
This routine of running errands and being absent from work continued to be repeated the rest of the days. "At 12.55pm on 2 June 2023, he was walking a dog close to his home, without wearing his work uniform," said the private detectives' report. As a result, the company dismissed him for disciplinary reasons, but the worker appealed.
The court partially upheld the claim and declared the dismissal unjustified, because the company did not comply with the legal deadline of 60 days, starting from the day it was informed of the disciplinary violation, to penalise the employee.
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