According to court documents on August 26, the remote employee was fired for “insubordination” and “refusal to work.”
Remote worker privacy rights issue
The remote worker explained to the court that he was working, and the company knew it. The company could monitor his activities on his laptop. And he was also screen-sharing.
The case was filed in the Netherlands, where the remote worker was based, He claimed he wasn’t given an “urgent reason” to “justify the immediate dismissal given,” And that Chetu did not have the right to demand he keep his webcam on since it violated his privacy rights.
The court ruled “The employer has not made it clear enough about the reasons for the dismissal. Moreover, there has been no evidence of a refusal to work, nor has there been any reasonable instruction.”
The Dutch court also cited Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which says, “strict conditions are attached to observing employees.” And referred to a European Court of Human Rights judgment in 2017 “that video surveillance of an employee in the workplace, be it covert or not, must be considered as a considerable intrusion into the employee’s private life.”
