A remote employee working for a U.S. company from the Netherlands has been awarded €75,000 by Dutch court, after being fired for refusing to turn his webcam on.
After working for Chetu for about a year and a half while based in the Netherlands, the employee was ordered to take part in a period of virtual training called a “Corrective Action Program.” During that time, he was told he would have to keep his webcam on for the entire workday, along with screen sharing turned on, according to the translated court document.
Yet the worker refused to keep his camera on, telling the company, “I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable...You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.” Just a couple of days later, he was fired for “refusal to work” and “insubordination.”The employee didn’t think his firing was just, and neither did the Dutch court he took his legal complaint to.
Upon the initial lawsuit filing, Chetu claimed that the webcam monitoring was no different from if the employee had been physically present in an office, an argument that wasn’t enough to sway the judge. Though the company did not actually show up for the court proceedings. Chetu also did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.These Mann Magnets Gear Toys are a simple and stylish way for kids to learn to problem solve in a STEM setting.
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