A company fired an employee for not turning on the webcam and the end

This employee worked remotely from the Netherlands for Chetu, an American software company. One day in late August, the company told him he needed to keep his webcam on all day for a training program, the NL Times reported.

In response, the employee told Chetu that he “didn’t feel comfortable being under surveillance nine hours a day”, according to court documents filed in the Netherlands, where the case was heard.

“This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable,” he told the company, “That’s why I don’t have the webcam on.”

The employee said the company was able to track his activities on the laptop and that he was also sharing his screen.

Another employee at Chetu said requiring employees to keep their webcams on at all times was “no different” from having an employee being seen all day in a physical office, according to court papers.

Three days later, on August 26, the employee was fired for “refusing to work” and “uncooperative”, the court documents said.

He took Chetu to court in the Netherlands, saying he was not told “urgent reasons” to “justify immediate dismissal” and that it was a violation of his rights by the company to ask him to open the webcam. private.

In its ruling, the Dutch court sided with the employee, arguing that the dismissal “has no legal value”.

In its ruling, the Dutch court sided with this employee

“The employer did not specify the reason for the dismissal,” the court said. “Furthermore, there is no evidence of refusal to work, nor any reasonable instructions.”

The court added that forcing an employee to open a webcam is against the employee’s right to respect his or her private life.

The court cited Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which reads: “Strict conditions are attached to the observation of employees”.

It also refers to the European Court of Human Rights ruling in a 2017 case “that video surveillance of employees in the workplace, whether confidential or not, should be considered a substantial intrusive act.” into the employee’s private life.”

Chetu did not immediately respond to requests for comment via email and phone.

According to tech site TechCrunch, if an employee in the Netherlands is working in Florida or somewhere else in the US, his situation could fall under the so-called right to work law, which states that employees work “at will” – and generally being able to quit or be fired at any time, for almost any reason, which can include refusing to let the webcam work.

But a Dutch court ruled that Chetu must pay the former employee 50,000 euros, or about $48,500, fair compensation, 2,700 euros in unpaid wages, 8,373.13 euros for legal termination, and money. his unpaid vacation allowance, according to court documents. It’s not clear if there’s an appeals process for such a ruling, but research has shown that having webcams on all day can easily push employees to burn out.