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Created on Sunday, 02 January 2011 12:58

Last Updated on Friday, 28 December 2012 18:58

Employer Tolerated Significant Damages for Months - Now too Late to Fire

Read all about the misery of Lufthansa subsidiary LSG Sky where an employee caused around € 2,500 damages and yet they still lost the case in the Labor Court of Frankfurt / Main (judgment of September 24, 2010, re 24 Ca 1697/10).

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An employee had texted over 16,000 private messages from his company cell phone, during a period of 22 months, creating a damage of 2.5 k€ and he even admitted all this. The background to this whole scenario is that the employee received his daily instructions via his company cell phone. Nevertheless, the ArbG Frankfurt declared the notice for null and void and therefore dismissed the case - but not because it was so in favor of so much private usage of company cell phones.

It was due to the employee's behavior that the catering company gave him extraordinary notice after internal control noticed the irregularities. The employer however was to blame that they did not first admonish the employee for the misuse of the cell phone. The court pointed out that an employer forfeits their right to give notice to an employee when they do not first offer a chance for him to change his behavior - via an admonishment. This is especially true in this case, where the damages are high, where the fault of the employee is beyond any doubt.