Termination without notice in the event of tip embezzlement is legal
Created: 09/04/2022, 12:35 p.m
By: Carina Blumenroth
Terminated without notice because you embezzled a tip?
A labor court confirmed this.
© Imago
If an employee embezzles a tip that was intended for all employees, then termination without notice is legal, a court ruled.
In the summer, the labor court in Siegburg heard a case involving dismissal without notice after a tip was embezzled.
The court found that the termination without notice was legal.
According to the specialist portal Haufe, the judgment is not yet final – the dismissed person can appeal to the regional labor court.
But what happened?
Termination without notice for tips
The employee who was dismissed had already been employed as a car technician in a workshop for several years.
In the workshop, it is customary for scrap dealers to collect disposed of material on a regular basis – since the goods are not for sale, the scrap dealers always pay something into the employees’ tip box when they pick it up.
Since the collection takes place at regular intervals, it is the case that larger amounts of tips are accumulated again and again.
In the workshop, the money from the tip box is generally distributed to all employees.
Embezzlement is considered a reason for termination
In January, the dismissed employee is said to have received a large sum of cash for the tip box during his shift.
It was 235 euros, of which only 70 euros ended up in the joint tip box for all employees.
The employee is said to have kept the rest of 165 euros for himself.
When his boss noticed this, he fired the employee without notice.
The employee filed an action for protection against unfair dismissal, but this was unsuccessful before the labor court.
This noted a significant breach of duty because the man had wrongly kept the money.
At trial: Plaintiff makes conflicting statements
The terminated employee said the money came from a workbench he sold.
The court doubts that, since he could not provide any information on the weight of the workbench, nor did he know other details about the sale.
The court calculated for the man that the workbench must have weighed around 600 kilos for a price of 165 euros to jump out.
Other items are said to have been sold in order to arrive at the said sum.
The court questioned the veracity of the statements.
Termination without notice: These are reasons for it
If a dismissal without notice is given, there must be serious reasons.
According to the financial tip, this can include the following:
offenses
mobbing
refusal to work
sexual harassment
An employer can terminate the contract extraordinarily for “important reasons”; the reason must first be explained upon request.
Important reasons may include fraud, theft and embezzlement.
There is no list in the law that sets out when an employer may give extraordinary notice, it depends on the individual case.
In principle, however, it is also conceivable that an employee will be dismissed if he or she has made negative comments about the employer on the Internet.
But drug use, feigning incapacity to work or fraudulent working hours can also be reasons for dismissal.