 AN employee has won his job back after being fired because the Supreme Court considered tracking him via GPS after he had called in sick was an invasion of privacy.
Joaquín I.T., who worked for a cleaning and rubbish collection franchise employed by Bilbao city council, spent most of his working day on business travel using his company car, or on foot.
In June 2010, he was signed off sick with pains in his arm.
The firm employed a private detective, who fitted a hidden satellite navigation system in his company car, which revealed that he had been driving long distances whilst off work and carrying out other physical activity such as carrying heavy supermarket shopping bags.
He was fired the following month, and appealed against his dismissal in court.
The court of Bilbao upheld his case, but the company appealed the decision in the regional Supreme Court (pictured).
But a judge rejected the appeal and ordered the firm to pay the ex-employee his wages between the date of his dismissal until the present day, and to allow him back into his job.
The judge said the investigation methods were 'disproportionate' to the situation and that to track a staff member signed off sick with a satellite navigator to 'catch him out' was 'a clear breach of the fundamental right to privacy'.
In announcing the verdict, the judge referred to a previous case where the Constitutional Court ordered the readmission and compensation of an employee of another firm who was dismissed after a routine company medical examination showed that the person had been taking drugs. |
