The Court of Appeal Amsterdam ruled that a shelf-stacking employee showing up to work under the influence did not constitute urgent cause for dismissal. He had been wrongly summarily dismissed, since under the applicable policy he should first have received a warning.
Facts
The employee worked as a shelf-stacker for Detailconsult Personeel B.V. He joined on 25 March 2019, and his employment contract was due to end on 25 June 2020. He carried out his work at Dirk van den Broek. Detailconsult’s company regulations applied to his contract, including a provision on drug and alcohol use. As his contract was nearing its end, this had already been confirmed in writing. Following an incident on 14 May 2020, he was suspended. After Detailconsult investigated the incident, he was summarily dismissed on 20 May 2020. He had shown up to work under the influence of alcohol and subsequently caused a collision with the department manager’s car.
Ruling
The Court of Appeal ruled that the conduct described above did not constitute urgent cause for summary dismissal. According to the dismissal letter, Detailconsult’s urgent cause was working under the influence and damaging the car. Detailconsult had not made sufficiently clear that the urgent cause also lay in the employee getting behind the wheel while drunk. Moreover, there was no evidence he had shown up under the influence on previous occasions. Detailconsult had therefore acted contrary to its own regulations by not issuing a warning and instead proceeding directly to summary dismissal. Since this was only his first incident, summary dismissal was too severe a measure. It was not established that he had intentionally damaged the department manager’s car, so no separate damages claim against him existed either.
This ruling again shows that, alongside the evidence, the content of the summary-dismissal letter itself is decisive in determining whether the dismissal will stand.
Click here for the full ruling (in Dutch).
Questions about the above?
Please contact one of Sørensen Advocaten’s employment lawyers. Call: +31 (0)10-2492444
