A Dutch employee fired for turning off his webcam during work hours was awarded €75,000 by a Dutch court for wrongful termination

A Dutch employee fired for turning off his webcam during work hours was awarded €75,000 by a Dutch court for wrongful termination. 

The employee worked for the Rijswijk branch of Chetu Inc., a software company based in Miramar, Florida. According to NL Times, the man was hired in January 2019 and earned 70,000 euros annually. During that time, he was mandated to attend a virtual training called a “Corrective Action Program” and told to remain logged in for the entire workday with his webcam on. However, he told his employer that he didn’t feel comfortable with being monitored for nine hours.

“This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That’s the reason why my camera isn’t on. You can already monitor all activities on my laptop, and I am sharing my screen,” he explained to his employer. He was fired on August 26 for “refusing to work.”