A high court in Spain on Thursday ordered a bakery in the Catalonia region of the state to pay £20,000 in compensation to an employee who was deemed to have been “wrongfully terminated” for urinating in mixing bowls, an act that was caught on camera.
The employee (name withheld) sued the bakery after being fired in 2018 for an act that was recorded on the bakery’s CCTV footage, with the footage having been set up by a private detective agency hired by the bakery.
According to the bakery’s version of events, the woman urinated in a mixing bowl, emptied the contents in the sink, rinsed the bowl with water, and then placed it among the clean utensils to be used in the production process for customer consumption.
However, the high court discovered a crucial detail. It was revealed that there was no designated rest area for the employees, forcing them to improvise wherever they could.
Spain’s labor laws are clear about the prohibition of CCTV cameras in areas meant for employee “rest and recreation,” including restrooms and changing rooms. This ruling means that any area within the workplace could be considered a rest and recreation area, making it illegal to install CCTV cameras.
Despite the bakery’s arguments, the court rejected all their claims. Furthermore, the court deemed the act of urinating in the mixing bowls to be irrelevant to the termination.
Consequently, the bakery was ordered to pay £21,100 in compensation to the dismissed employee, covering the pay she did not receive due to her termination.
