A judge has ruled that a Dutch company must pay €2,000 to two former employees after a manager violated their privacy.
Ever taken a moment to vent your frustrations to a co-worker? Now, imagine if your boss found those messages.
Two chefs working for a café-restaurant in Haarlem, run by hospitality company De Jaren, were fired after their employers discovered negative messages about the company in their private WhatsApp messages.
According to RTL, the men had been highly critical of the management and other staff in their exchange.
Why the negativity?
While we can’t read the messages themselves, it’s clear there were real reasons behind the employees’ frustrations.
The two chefs were hired by the company to create a new concept for the kitchen in question back in 2024. Pretty straightforward, right?
However, issues with management and organisation stalled this plan several times. The chefs were left exasperated and expressed this in their messages.
What happened?
Apparently, one of the chefs was using the company laptop to send private WhatsApp messages. You have to admit, that’s a risky move.
As a result, when the manager used the device, she was able to access the private chat. The manager claims the conversation was left open on the laptop when she went to use it.
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After reading negative messages about herself and other staff, she took photos of the chat and forwarded them to her superiors.
The men claim damages
The company requested a meeting with the chefs the next day to discuss the messages, who initially agreed, but then called in sick.
Following this, they were informed that their contracts would not be renewed due to the incident.
Ouch! Bad move: the men filed a lawsuit, claiming €30,000 in damages for privacy violation.
In particular, they disputed their manager’s claim that the messages were left open on the laptop.
The company responded in court, arguing that the negative and insulting comments made by the employees led her to continue reading. Is this a thin argument? Some would say yes.
Including a judge.
So, what was the verdict?
The court found that, in addition to being illegally acquired, using the content of the messages as grounds for the employees’ dismissal was definitely illegal.
In addition, taking photographs of the messages and distributing them further constituted an unjustifiable violation of privacy, according to the ruling.
However, the judge did cut the company some slack. The ordered payment of €2,000 for each employee is nothing compared to the initial demand of €30,000.
This is partly because both chefs found new employment in September of the same year. As the incident occurred in June, their income loss was considered minimal.
Lesson learned: read the room, not the DMs.
What do you think of the ruling? Let us know in the comments!
