It is an “unjustified dismissal” which the employee’s defense welcomes. The prud’hommes of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) agreed on Monday with a man who had been dismissed in the summer of 2020 after having tested positive for Covid-19. This dismissal was recognized as being devoid of real and serious causes, we learned from his lawyer.
This employee of the local HLM office had returned from vacation slightly ill in July 2020. He had gone for a Covid test in the morning before going to work. But the result of his test, which arrived in the evening, was positive.
His employer had criticized him for returning to his workplace after this test and for endangering his colleagues. He had been fired for serious misconduct. Believing that his dismissal was unjustified, this claims manager then seized the industrial tribunal to request the nullity of this decision and seek compensation.
The employer has one month to appeal
“Our request was accepted by the prud’hommes, who believe that the dismissal of my client is devoid of real and serious causes”, declared Me Stéphane Thomann, the lawyer of the employee in his forties. “So it is indeed an unjustified dismissal,” he continued. The industrial tribunals have identified factual elements which do not allow the conclusion that Sébastien Klem would have breached any obligation or safety rule by going to work.
“My client did not present at that time (the day he came back to work) none of the symptoms listed in a Covid case. He had the honesty to call his employer in the evening, after having received the result of a test that he had carried out the same morning”, specified the lawyer. The HLM office will have one month to appeal this decision when it has been published.