A Florida-headquartered company has been ordered to pay about 75,000 in compensation and other fees after firing a remote worker who refused to keep their webcams on all day. An employee of the company was required to attend a virtual classroom with theirWebcam turned on for the entire day and their screen monitored.
The company dismissed them due to "refusal to work" and "insubordination" after the employee refused to leave their webcams on for 9 hours a day.
The reasons for dismissal were found to be invalid by the court.
The court ruled that there wasn't enough reason to dismiss the employee. The court said there was no evidence of a refusal to work. The dismissal was not valid due to the fact that the employee was told to leave the camera on.
The European Convention on Human Rights gives citizens the right to respect for private and family life. Management being able to see them while they're working in a traditional office is no different from requiring employees to leave their webcams on. The court noted that there were strict conditions attached to observing employees and that asking an employee to leave their camera on was unwarranted.
According to NLTimes, the court ordered the company to pay its former employee a lot of money. There is compensation of 50,000, roughly 2,700, and over 8,000 for wrongful dismissal. The employee needs to be paid for their unused vacation days.
It seems that employees under the jurisdiction of the ECHR have more protections than employees in an at- will jurisdiction.
The person who answered the request for comment did not reply.
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