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Tönnies main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (archive photo)
Photo: Noah Wedel / imago images
Employees are allowed to have several jobs - but they usually have to tell their bosses.
If something like that comes out involuntarily, there will be trouble.
The case that the Bielefeld Labor Court has just published is an extreme example of this.
A 44-year-old worked as a quality inspector for an auto parts supplier.
In order to earn some extra money, he worked on Sundays for a cleaning company, namely in the Tönnies slaughterhouse and cutting plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
He cleaned rooms with harsh chemicals, where pork halves are shock frozen.
His work clothes were full-body protective suits, and most recently a respirator was also part of it.
Tönnies employees were never active there.
When a corona infection was found in 730 of 1106 employees tested in the slaughterhouse in June 2020, the authorities closed the operation by general decree and sent the employees into quarantine.
As a precaution, the double jobber voluntarily had himself tested for the corona virus.
Lucky: the test was negative.
Termination is ineffective
His main employer, however, found out about the part-time job: There were three other colleagues at the auto supplier who also did their Sunday job, and because they were unsure how to behave, they finally approached their superiors.
Then it became uncomfortable for the man.
Not only did his second employment result.
Also that he had taken time off in this situation without any indication of the part-time job.
The company terminated the employment relationship without notice.
As stipulated in the employment contract, the employee did not provide information about his secondary employment.
Even when more than a thousand positive corona cases were later known at Tönnies, he was silent.
Ultimately, according to the reason for the termination, he accepted that his colleagues could also become infected.
This grossly negligent behavior destroyed the relationship of trust.
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The man sued against this, and the labor court declared the dismissal to be ineffective.
The judges criticized several points.
The employer had already terminated the plaintiff before the works council could expressly give its final opinion on the step.
The employee representatives were also not informed of all the important facts for the termination, such as the exact working conditions, or that the plaintiff had tested negative for the corona virus.
The plaintiff is to be reproached for not having reported the secondary activity to his employer.
According to the judges, this can only justify a warning, but not a dismissal.
The plaintiff's behavior was not characterized by "gross recklessness".
Rather, because of the media coverage, he did not have the courage to reveal the sideline.
It is also not clear "why the plaintiff should not use a warning as a warning."
The judicial decision was made on December 17, 2020
(file number: 1 Ca 1741/20)
.
mamk / JurAgentur
