Employee accidentally receives 330 times the salary from the company - and then disappears

Created: 07/06/2022 05:53

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

An employee in Chile accidentally received 330 times his salary from his company.

(Iconic image) © Kira Hofmann/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Archive image

An employee in Chile accidentally received 330 times his salary from his company.

When HR asked for the money back, the man disappeared without a trace.

Santiago – So much money can quickly get to your head: A Chilean employee fled after his employer accidentally paid him 330 times his salary, according to the US business magazine

, citing local media.

Chilean receives 330 times his salary – and submits his resignation

On May 30, the shipping assistant received 165,398,851 Chilean pesos (almost 171,000 euros) too much in the monthly salary payment from his employer, the sausage manufacturer CIAL Alimentos.

His actual salary was only 500,000 Chilean pesos (almost 517 euros).

This corresponds roughly to the average salary in Chile.

The equivalent of 171,000 euros is a huge chunk of money for an average earner in the Latin American country.

According to media reports, the man first turned to his superior and explained to him that too much money had been transferred to him.

The human resources department became aware of the error and then requested the money back from the shipping assistant.

"He was informed that this money was not the payment for any service," quotes the newspaper

from the company's complaint against the now former employee.

In Germany, too, employees would have to pay the money back

Because he did not pay back the money, he stopped coming to work and ignored calls and messages from his employer for several days.

Instead, he submitted his resignation through a lawyer.

The company eventually filed a complaint of embezzlement.

According to media reports, the man has not yet been arrested.

In Germany, too, the right would be on the part of the employer: if a company accidentally transfers too much money to its employee in this country, the latter must reimburse it.

Only in very few exceptional cases is the employee allowed to keep the excess money paid out.