Is this the perfect excuse not to activate your webcam for work calls?
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A Netherlands-based employee of Chetu, a Florida company, has won a lawsuit against their employer for unfair dismissal in the field of remote webcam surveillance.
The employee was asked to enable screen sharing and webcam access for an entire workday while attending a training program, but after refusing to do so, he was fired. This was possible in Florida, where employees or companies are not required to provide notice or reason for contract termination, but labor regulations around the world provide different levels of protection.
According to publicly available court documents from the Zeeland West-Brabant District Court, the employee explained to the company:
“I don’t feel comfortable being monitored by a camera 9 hours a day. This is an invasion of my privacy and I feel really uncomfortable. That’s why my camera isn’t on. You can already follow all activities on my laptop and I share my screen.”
Monitoring staff via webcam
The next day, Chetu notified the employee by email of the termination of their contract on grounds of refusal to work and insubordination.
In the end, the court ruled in the employee’s favor, insisting that Chetu pay the plaintiff $2,600 in unpaid salary, $9,245 in employee transition assistance, and another $8,150 on a wrongful contract termination basis. The fines were extended to the equivalent of 23 days of vacation pay, an 8% vacation allowance, and any court and late payment fees, bringing the total to nearly $50,000.
The court summed up that “nine hours a day of CCTV surveillance is disproportionate and is not allowed in the Netherlands. In addition, he was already checked for output via software installed on his laptop.” It continues: “There was no refusal to work.”
The court’s notes also highlight the company’s lack of explanation or defense against this case, in addition to Chetu’s failure to appear at the hearing.
Chetu has since dissolved its Dutch branch and deregistered from the country’s trade register effective September 1, 2022.
TechRadar Pro the company has asked for a response to the ruling.