A bakery in Barcelona, Spain will have to pay the equivalent of more than $35,000 to an employee fired for urinating in mixing bowls… because the camera that allegedly caught her in the act was illegally installed in the room .
During the summer of 2018, the employee of the Neucroissant bakery, whose identity was not specified, received a dismissal letter after she was apparently caught urinating in containers intended for the kitchen, reported “The Telegraph” on Thursday.
In the images captured by a surveillance camera, which was allegedly installed in the room without warning the employees, it was possible to see the woman “squatting [et] urinating in a bowl” before rinsing it with water and “placing it with the rest of the clean utensils, used later in production for customer consumption,” a detective firm hired by the company would have specified, before the High Court of Catalonia.
However, according to Spanish law, it is prohibited for an employer to install cameras in employee rest areas, including changing rooms, toilets and dining rooms.
And since the bakery did not have any designated space for changing, employees used a production area, where the woman would have been surprised, for this purpose, making the installation of a camera illegal in this space.
The company will therefore have to reimburse more than 25,000 euros to the employee, or more than $35,300, in compensation for the loss of income linked to her dismissal, according to “The Telegraph”.