Stephanie from Den Bosch, who called in sick to go to her uncle’s wedding, was rightly fired. The subdistrict court judge in Den Bosch ruled this. The woman from Den Bosch did not accept that her employer Transavia wanted to dismiss her as of December 1 and filed a lawsuit.
Stephanie really wanted to go to her uncle’s wedding, but her employer Transavia did not give her time off. So, after several requests, she called in sick on the day of the wedding and went to the party anyway.
The airline thought such a false sick report from the purser was really unacceptable and announced that it would terminate her contract. The company terminated her job effective December 1, 2023. Staying away without permission can have major consequences, they believed at Transavia, such as canceling or delaying flights. “If everyone does this, we will have a big problem,” an employee said during the hearing at the end of September.
Major surgery
The woman argued in court that she had not worked in May and June due to a major operation and was still suffering psychologically from this in July, when she returned to work. The subdistrict court judge saw insufficient substantiation in the file and noted that the woman herself had said in a WhatsApp conversation that she was doing well and that she was looking forward to flying as a purser again.
According to the subdistrict court, the defense that the woman cannot be dismissed if she is ill is also not valid. Someone who calls in sick to go to a wedding damages the trust of her employer.
During the hearing, the subdistrict court judge already made an advance on the ruling: “You knew it was not allowed, but you did it anyway,” he said at the time. “You didn’t act properly.”
Severance pay
Transavia employees then said that the trust is gone and they do not want to work with the purser again, because it is a bad example for all other employees. “They think they can do this once,” was the statement. “And if all employees do this once, we will have a big problem.”
Transavia may therefore dismiss Stephanie as of December 1. She will receive a severance payment of 8,700 euros. The woman had demanded compensation of more than 61,000 euros if she were fired.
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