A Dutch court has ruled that US software company Chetu must pay a remote employee $73,000 for wrongly dismissing him for refusing to keep his webcam on.
On August 23rd, the worker who worked for Chetu from the Netherlands was told that he had to keep his webcam on all day for a virtual training program, which he refused because he did not feel comfortable being monitored by a camera for nine hours a day.
He went on to say that this was an invasion of his privacy and made him feel very uncomfortable. Furthermore, the company had already monitored his laptop activities, and he had also shared his screen.
Three days later, the employee was dismissed for refusing to work and disobedience, and the employee then filed a lawsuit against Chetu in the Netherlands, where he was based, claiming that he had not been given an important reason for his dismissal, and that the company’s request to keep his webcam on was a violation of his privacy rights.
The court ruled in favor of the worker and ruled that the dismissal was unlawful; it also found that the employer did not provide sufficient information on the reasons for dismissal and that there was no evidence of refusal to work or rational instruction. Making an employee leave their camera on is a violation of the employee’s right to privacy, according to the court.
Eventually, the court ruled that Chetu must pay the former employee about $48,500 in fair severance, $2,600 in unpaid salary, and $8,126 for wrongful termination, as well as his unpaid vacation allowance.
The sources for this piece include an article BusinessInsider.