Employers may want to be careful with who they require webcam monitoring.
A Dutch court recently found a Florida-based court to have violated the rights of a Dutch employee due to it demanding the employee to turn on their webcam during a virtual training period, per Tech Crunch.
The Florida-based company was forced to pay the employee a sum of around $73,000 as a result of the court's findings.
Dutch Employee's Case vs. Webcam Monitoring
According to a report from the NL Times, a remote Dutch telemarketer was hired by the Rijswijk branch of Chetu Inc., a software development company based in Miramar, Florida.
Although the employee started working in the company in 2019, earning a total of around $70,000 per year from their salary, commission, variable bonus, and holiday allowance, they were instructed to join a virtual training period called a "Corrective Action Program."
Although the employee didn't mention why he was chosen to take part in the program, he did feel uncomfortable with one of its requirements - remaining logged in with screen sharing and his webcam activated for the entire workday.
He mentioned that the program is an invasion of his privacy, with him explaining that Chetu Inc. can already see what he's doing thanks to his screen being shared,
Unfortunately, the Dutch employee was soon fired due to his "refusing to work" and "insubordination" three days later, which Chetu Inc. may have walked away from scot-free if the employee was living in the US, as the company was in an "at-will state."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, "at-will" means an employer can terminate an employee anytime without any reason except an illegal one or without becoming legally liable for doing so.
However, as the employee was based in the Netherlands, the employee was able to take their case to a Dutch court.
According to the court documents (which are in Dutch), the now-fired employee sued Chetu Inc. for unfair dismissal.
After some deliberation, the court found it in the employee's favor, and as such, Chetu Inc. has to pay for their former employee's court costs, back wages, a $50,000 fine, and an order to remove the former employee's non-compete clause.
Additionally, the employee will receive their wages and payment for their 23 unused vacation days, 8% statutory holiday allowance, and an additional penalty for failure to provide a payslip for the employee's services during their last month working for it.
In total, Chetu, Inc. is required to pay their former employee $72,710.25.
Why Did The Court Rule in The Employee's Favor?
The Dutch court cited the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in a similar case back on Nov. 28, 2017. According to the court, tracking an employee through a webcam/camera daily for nine hours is "disproportionate" and not allowed in the Netherlands. Additionally, the employee was very much willing to work despite already being monitored through screen sharing.
As such, the court found that Chetu Inc. did not have an urgent reason to dismiss their employee as soon as they did and probably only did so because the employee refused to submit themselves for further monitoring through their webcam.
The Rijswijk branch of Chetu Inc. was eventually deregistered from the Netherlands' Chamber of Commerce and shut down on Sept. 2.
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