15 Aug 2024 Do comments about a female colleague's appearance justify summary dismissal?

An operations director has the habit of making comments with sexual overtones to a female colleague about her appearance. The employer has had enough and summary dismisses the director. But can this stand the test before the subdistrict court? You can read about it here:

What were the facts?

The employee in question has worked indefinitely at a company in Limburg since 1 October 2023, on a salary of €8,000 gross per month. He was suspended at the end of January this year and summarily dismissed not much later, after the employer ordered an investigation into the employee's behaviour. The reason for the dismissal: transgressive behaviour towards a - subordinate - female colleague, consisting of comments with sexual connotations, such as ‘How nice you look today’, ‘What does your boyfriend say’, ‘I like women in suits’, and ‘How pretty your hair looks today’. Combined with the employee's tone and facial expressions, this made the colleague feel quite uncomfortable.

But according to the director himself, there was no urgent cause for summary dismissal and he was wrongly accused of transgressive behaviour. He argues that he compliments both female and male colleagues on their clothes because he once learned this during a course.

In court, the director claimed fair compensation of more than €100,000, in addition to the transition payment and the fixed compensation.

Was the summary dismissal justified?

The subdistrict court held that there was no urgent cause for summary dismissal. Although the director's remarks were highly inappropriate, summary dismissal was too severe a punishment. The employer should have first confronted the director with his remarks and non-verbal communication, so that the director would have had a chance to adjust his non-verbal and verbal communication.

Large fair compensation or not?

So does this mean that the subdistrict court did indeed award the large fair compensation of over €100,000? This is not the case: although the employer acted seriously culpable by summarily dismissing the director, the director did not sufficiently substantiate his huge claim. For this reason, the court awarded a fair compensation of €17,280 gross, equal to two months' salary including holiday allowance. In addition, the subdistrict court awarded a transition payment of € 975 and a fixed compensation of € 16,982 (being the salary over the notice period).

You can read this ruling here.

Summary dismissal, it remains a thorny issue, even (or perhaps we should say: especially) when it concerns transgressive behaviour in the workplace. Do you also have employment law questions? SPEE advocaten & mediation is your trusted point of contact.

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