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Tönnies company: woman posted controversial video from the inside (symbol image)
Photo: David Inderlied / dpa
After an employee published a controversial video from the Tönnies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück in the spring, her employer put her outside the door without notice.
The catering company supplies the Tönnies canteen with food.
The woman did not want to accept the expulsion and went to court, but entered into a settlement this Thursday.
The employee and the catering company agreed before the Biefeld Labor Court to convert the termination from an immediate to an ordinary one, while observing all deadlines and payments.
This was announced by a spokesman for the court.
In addition, the woman receives a severance payment of 20,000 euros.
According to the court, the plaintiff did not appear at the appointment.
"Whether the woman has violated her duties as an employee was discussed at this meeting. Because the court did not have to pronounce a judgment, there was no decision on the question of whether the dismissal was legal," said the spokesman.
Video footage: Eating without a gap
The employee is said to have published footage with alleged violations of corona prevention rules at Tönnies on the Internet in the spring.
The video appeared on the Internet at the end of March.
The pictures show Tönnies employees who sit together at tables in the canteen and eat.
According to an ordinance of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a minimum distance of 1.50 meters had to be maintained at this time in company canteens for reasons of infection protection.
The Bielefeld public prosecutor is currently checking whether there have been any violations after receiving numerous reports against the company.
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The Tönnies company, on the other hand, maintains that the workers only stayed in the canteen with colleagues with whom they also worked in a department.
This so-called cluster was coordinated with occupational safety.
In addition, there were no increased positive cases during this phase of the pandemic.
Later, the number of seats was "considerably" reduced and a face mask was introduced in the canteen.
Woman confirms that she posted video
At a grace meeting in June, the woman and her employer had already agreed on a timely termination and severance pay.
However, after the employee changed her lawyer, she revoked the settlement.
According to the court, the woman had confirmed in the settlement date to have put the video on the Internet.
However, she denied that there were negative comments in the video from her.
In June there had been a major corona outbreak at the meat company Tönnies.
Within a very short time, more than 1,400 workers were infected and two districts had to go into lockdown again.
In the course of the reporting, the working conditions in the meat factory, which had been controversial for years, came under increasing criticism.
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Fok / dpa / AFP