Ten bizarre reasons for quitting
In order for the employer to be able to terminate the employee without notice, there must be a legitimate reason for the termination. The most common reasons are insult, refusal to work and theft. But sometimes the employer justifies the termination without notice with extremely strange arguments if the behavior of the employee was particularly questionable.
These are not always comprehensible, but still partly legal. Ten extremely bizarre reasons for termination are presented below.
Charged the cell phone in the office
Almost every worker charges their mobile phone when needed in the office. If the work is not restricted as a result, it is difficult to imagine how this can lead to termination without notice.
In Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, however, this was exactly what led to a dismissal. The employer justified this with electricity theft. However, the competent labor court judged the dismissal to be unlawful, since the amount in dispute was around 0.014 cents.
Coming to work under the influence of drugs and alcohol
This is a case that happened in March 2017. Two assembly line workers at the BMW plant in Munich showed up to work under the influence of alcohol and cannabis. During a lunch break, they apparently consumed alcohol and said drug, which had been mixed with a synthetic herbal mixture.
This mix resulted in the two workers collapsing on the job and requiring emergency care. The damage caused by the standstill of the assembly line amounted to a five-digit amount. The consequence: one of the employees was transferred as a penalty, while the other was dismissed without notice.
Wrong farewell in the call center
A 29-year-old call center employee from North Rhine-Westphalia always said goodbye to the company’s customers with “Jesus loves you, thank you for your purchase”. The employer asked the man several times to refrain from that phrase and then fired him without notice when the 29-year-old failed to do so.
In the first instance, the employee won the proceedings against the termination without notice, in the second instance the Hamm Regional Court ruled in favor of the employer.
Legal policy reading at work
In the Berlin district office in Reinickendorf, an employee read the original version of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” during breaks in his working hours and publicly displayed the swastika printed on it. This was followed by the termination without notice without warning, which was also judged to be lawful by the Berlin-Brandenburg State Labor Court.
The court justified the judgment as follows: “The employee appears in uniform as a representative of the state of Berlin and is particularly obliged to stand up for the free-democratic basic order in the sense of the Basic Law at all times.”
Misjudged the age
A lawyer from Edingen-Neckarhausen in Baden-Württemberg fired his 19-year-old trainee because she misjudged his wife’s age in a photo. She held the boss’s 31-year-old wife for 40 years, after which she was terminated without notice.
The termination was justified with insult, disrespectful behavior and other small mistakes and trifles. In the end, the parties were able to agree on a settlement, the trainee received a final salary and looked for a new training position.
E-mails forwarded from the work account to the private address
A case by the Berlin-Brandenburg State Labor Court ruled on a termination, which was pronounced due to the forwarding of professional e-mails to the private account.
The verdict was: Serious breach of duty. Sensitive company data was forwarded. The court saw the business interests of the company at risk, which is why the dismissal without notice is lawful.
New Year’s pyrotechnics in the occupied Dixi toilet
A Krefeld construction worker set off an explosive firecracker in a dixi toilet occupied by a colleague. As a result, he sustained severe injuries in his genital area, thighs and groin, so he was unable to work for three weeks.
The pyromaniac was dismissed without notice and the Krefeld labor court also agreed to the dismissal without warning.
Poor personal hygiene
A 50-year-old architect on probation was fired without notice by the city of Cologne due to poor personal hygiene. The architect refused to compare the city, because he wasn’t interested in money, but in his human dignity.
However, the court ruled in favor of the client, declaring the termination effective.
Sung the first verse of the Deutschlandlied
An employee sang the first verse of the Deutschlandlied in front of colleagues and American business partners. The Cologne company then fired him without notice because this behavior was damaging to the company, according to the employer.
However, since the employee had already worked in the company for 30 years, the Cologne Regional Labor Court ruled in favor of the employee. A warning would be a sufficient consequence with regard to the behavior.
Slow work
The district administration of Hesse canceled an architect’s job because she worked too slowly. She was commissioned to prepare an expert opinion, for which a period of 40 days was calculated. With 96 working days, the architect needed more than twice as long, which is why she was initially instructed in writing to work faster during this period, which was followed by a warning and finally dismissal.
The court considered the dismissal to be legitimate.
Henry Ely / Editor finanzen.net
Image sources: ER_09 / Shutterstock.com