from the every-single-day-and-every-word-you-say-I'll-be-watching-you dept.
Dutch Court Rules that Being Forced to Keep a Webcam on While Working is Illegal
A US company was fined $50,000 and ordered to pay the employee's wages and vacation days:
A court in the Netherlands has ruled that a US company violated a Dutch worker's human rights by forcing him to keep his webcam on during work hours, TechCrunch has reported. Hired by Florida telemarketing firm Chetu, the employee was terminated for refusing to be monitored "for nine hours per day" by a program that streamed his webcam and shared his screens.
[...] As Florida is an at-will state, employees can be fired for any reason as long as it's not illegal. In the Netherlands and other EU countries, however, you must have a valid motive for firing someone (refusal to perform work, culpable conduct, etc.) — otherwise, the employee has grounds to dispute it.
Dutch Court: Employees Safe from Bosses' Video Surveillance
Chetu ordered to pay restitution for employee's unlawful termination:
A telephone sales rep in the Netherlands has won an unfair dismissal court case against his former employer, US software company Chetu, after he was fired for refusing to spend his work day surveilled by his computer camera.
In August of 2022, the employee was required to log on during an entire workday while sharing his screen and being monitored by camera and attending an online training program.
"I don't feel comfortable being monitored for nine hours a day by a camera," the un-named defendant is recorded as saying in a court filing. "This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on. You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen," the employee added.
[...] Chetu eventually received the following notification:
Hi [name of applicant], Your employment is hereby terminated. Reason: Refusal to work; Insubordination.
The Court of Zeeland West-Brabant determined [PDF] that not only was there no evidence of refusal to work, but instructing an employee to leave their camera on all day was a privacy violation. The court cited a November 28 ruling in the European Court of Human Rights that stated video surveillance of an employee in the workplace, covert or not, was a "considerable intrusion into the employee's private life."
[...] Chetu was ordered to pay restitution of $48,660 – $2,600 in unpaid salary, $8,150 for wrongful termination, $9,245 in worker transition assistance, the equivalent of 23 days vacation pay, eight percent statutory holiday allowance, court fees, and late payment fees. The inside sales representative grossed over $68,000 annually with the company prior to getting sacked.
Chetu dissolved and deregistered its Dutch branch within days of firing the employee. According to the court, the company was aware of the case but did not lodge a statement of defense or appear at the hearing.
The US company's website currently lists ten US locations, one in the UK and three in India.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Tuesday October 11 2022, @01:30PM
Because unless there's a compelling reason, like, say, a business meeting with a client, I certainly see no reason to dress appropriately, or at all, just to sit at home.
If you wanna see that, ok, but I'm not responsible for your mental scarring.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday October 11 2022, @01:59PM (14 children)
I see a major problem here. Suppose someone completes all of their expected work, and then some, sooner than expected. Now they have unplanned free time where they might not be working. This simply cannot be allowed or tolerated!
With video surveillance, the next time the manager meets with the employee to compliment them on the quality of their work, the manager can take that opportunity to reprimand them for having free time when they are not working. Maybe even fire them.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2022, @02:24PM
You are correct in general, but in this case this is a telemarketing company so you should never complete your work ahead of time; there is always someone else out there to swindle!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday October 11 2022, @03:20PM (8 children)
Look at it from the other angle - if you don't get the expected work done on time, would you be fine working as much longer as it takes for no additional pay?
In the US that's how salaried jobs are supposed to work (there's a lot of caveats), which is why most sane people when offered the "opportunity" to go salaried for the same job, will run for the hills - expectations have a way of creeping upward when the extra hours required come for free instead of time-and-a-half.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Tuesday October 11 2022, @04:47PM (4 children)
No one said the company isn't allowed to fire employees if their performance isn't up to par. They said firing them for refusing camera oversight during working hours is illegal.
Don't forget work oversight in general masquerades a fundamental lack of quality control: When a company states the need to watch their employees through either cameras or even direct oversight, they're saying "we don't understand the product well enough to measure and determine whether the work was done adequately based on the produce". And that's just a recipe for failure.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday October 11 2022, @05:21PM (3 children)
I'm totally on board with that.
I was specifically replying to DannyB's assertion that an employee should be allowed to finish their "expected" work, and then fuck off without consequences.
If you're salaried, then absolutely you should - that's the deal you signed up for. But that's usually not how it actually works out unless you're in (upper) management.
But an hourly employee is paid by the hour, and is expected to work all the hours they're paid for. Regardless of how productive (or not) they are (that would hopefully be reflected in their wage)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by helel on Tuesday October 11 2022, @11:14PM (2 children)
But the webcam doesn't have anything to do with running out of tasks in a given day. If the employee was leaving their computer and couldn't be reached to assign them more work while they're still on the clock that would be grounds for reprimand but having a webcam on them doesn't really address that at all. Their job is to push papers, not put on a cam show. If management wants a cam show then that should be specified in the job listing.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by hopdevil on Wednesday October 12 2022, @01:58AM (1 child)
Not everything a job entails is in a job listing. If the company wants a cam show, they tell you, and that is what you must do. This person didn't perform. The webcam was the task.
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Wednesday October 12 2022, @05:37PM
And the Dutch courts disagreed with that
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 12 2022, @02:43PM (2 children)
I am in the US. I've worked a salaried job for more than four decades. I have no complaints. There have been few times I've had to put in extra hours.
A very large Canadian company acquired us in 2006. They treat us very well. Like human beings. I am happy to go out of my way. I don't mind occasionally spending an hour at a non-business hours time to do a quick major server upgrade. That usually takes only about 2 minutes of downtime because it is all scripted and tested in advance. But there is a bit of extra bookkeeping that goes with it.
Just as one example, I get five weeks paid vacation. Plus five "personal" days. I think these were once called "sick" days a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way.
I have a lot of leeway in how I manage my time. I am expected to achieve certain goals. I get good reviews. I make terrible puns. They want everyone to be working between 10 AM and 2 PM (they call it 'core hours') to make it possible to schedule meetings across time zones.
I don't know about other salaried jobs in the US. But I'm happy. And it wasn't so bad in the years of being a small company before being swallowed up by a big company.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Friday October 14 2022, @12:50AM (1 child)
You haven't had a job transitioned from hourly to salaried, have you? That is a classic way of screwing over employees. You get a high hourly rate and they complain when you get a little bit of OT, even if they required it to do a job. Change that job to salaried, (make it look like a deal by offering more vacation, paid holidays, etc.) and even if you finish your work within 40 hours suddenly you start getting demands that you should be working more hours, maybe coming in on the weekend for half a day. Have a three day weekend because of a holiday? Oh, you should come in one day to make sure you're not falling behind. Take a vacation? You better put in extra time the weekends before and after. And so on. Suddenly that small bump in pay to make the salaried job seem better turns into a cut in pay.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 14 2022, @02:10PM
Fortunately, I haven't had those kind of demands except once. And that was maybe 15 or 20 years ago, long before being acquired by big company. There were a couple weeks we needed to work part of Saturday and a few extra hours in the week.
I never had any hourly jobs since I was in college prior to graduation.
I understand exactly the types of abuse you are saying. I've heard of it forever. I've heard people describe salaried as "unlimited unpaid overtime". I get that. But I've not experienced it.
On occasions where I need to put in an hour on a late evening or saturday to do server upgrade, I don't mind. I take pride in getting my product released. They treat us well enough that I'm happy to do it. It's not a big deal. And they let me take off early to make up for the hour I will spend outside of business hours.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by mcgrew on Tuesday October 11 2022, @06:22PM (3 children)
Which is why the socialist Dutch outlawed it while the half fascist US will likely require it, if the Fascist wing of our government gets control. Yes, the Republican party started its march to fascism under Reagan and completed it under Bush. "We're the party of liberty!" they shout, while taking away abortion rights and trying to take away some people's voting rights.
My Uncle shot a fascist close up in France in WWII. I don't advocate that at all, it caused Uncle Bill to become an alcoholic. But I fucking HATE fascism.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2022, @06:54PM
Lawl. Same energy as I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 13 2022, @01:41PM (1 child)
Dismantling democracy is necessary to the fascist wing of the US due to there being too many non-white skinned people. It's for your protection. For your own good.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday October 15 2022, @11:57AM
There needs to be a "sarcasm" mod and an "irony" mod. They would both be positive mods, although I guess "funny" covers sarcasm.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2022, @02:34PM
Speaks volumes, doesn't it?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 11 2022, @02:34PM (3 children)
>Chetu dissolved and deregistered its Dutch branch within days of firing the employee.
Now, have they got "sister companies" that pick up the business Chetu was handling in the Netherlands wherein they push the limits of labor abuse until one of them crosses a line and has to shuffle their work to yet another subsidiary?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday October 11 2022, @02:52PM (2 children)
Also: in how many languages is "Chetu" similar to "Cheat You"?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Funny) by Immerman on Tuesday October 11 2022, @05:23PM (1 child)
Watch it, or they might sick the law offices of Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe on you.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 11 2022, @09:20PM
Dickem, Stickem, & Runn
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hopdevil on Wednesday October 12 2022, @02:21AM
In Europe employees apparently get a right to privacy in the workplace.. so this is an easy case from a law perspective. That's news to me, good for human rights I suppose.
I wonder what happens with the mini mart clerk where cameras might be important for safety, or at banks for security. I can think of hypothetical cases where an employer might want use cameras to protect itself from potential malicious employees.
(Score: 3, Touché) by pvanhoof on Wednesday October 12 2022, @05:30PM
> Chetu dissolved and deregistered its Dutch branch within days of firing the employee.
Good riddance and more market room for sane companies here in the EU. Please also stay away. Don't come back. Leave. Fuck off.