After being fired for continuously harassing a female colleague and eventually kissing her on her neck, a warehouse worker took his dismissal to court. His argument? It was an accident.
According to AD, two years ago, the man, who had been working at the warehouse on and off since 2014, began acting inappropriately towards one of his female coworkers.
At one point, he grabbed the woman by the waist and pulled her towards him without her consent, at another, he grabbed her braid, stroking it from top to bottom.
However, the moment that got him summarily dismissed was when he kissed her on the neck against her will.
Demanding his job back
After the man was confronted about his behaviour by the woman and two colleagues, his employer stepped in.
According to the employer, the man “acted towards the female colleague for a period of approximately two years in a manner that constitutes a serious violation of his obligations as an employee and of the standards of conduct and integrity applicable within his employer.”
He was told both over the phone and via email that he should not return to work.
However, the man was not happy with the dismissal and decided to take his employer to court, demanding his job back, €12,000 in missed wages, and holiday pay.
Why did he feel he had been unfairly dismissed? Because he only accidentally kissed his female colleague on the neck. Happens to all of us.
But the judge wasn’t buying it
According to the man, he had simply been leaning over to smell the woman’s neck (completely normal behaviour) when his lips accidentally touched her skin.
As one can imagine, this wasn’t a very strong argument. And it wasn’t helped by the fact that the man had already apologised to the female colleague’s partner for the incident, asking him not to tell anyone.
He also claimed that his colleagues were plotting against him, pointing to some family ties, and that he had not received any warning at all before his dismissal.
Ultimately, the judge didn’t find any of these arguments compelling, ordering that the man reimburse his old employer €1,000 in legal costs.
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