They fire a worker who called himself on the phone to avoid serving customers

A worker was fired from a computer company after discovering an organized “plan” to not work: calling himself to seize the line and having other incoming calls routed to his colleagues.

The man in question, whose details were not disclosed, had been working at an IT support company since May 2019. He had agreed to work in the home office. His job was to attend calls from customers requesting support from his home.

But to avoid doing so, the employee in question was deliberately hogging his personal line so that no one could communicate. According to a court file, the worker made more than 150 calls to his number to prevent inquiries from the company’s customers from entering the system. The system was to occupy the line to divert requests to other workers.

When the company became aware of the maneuver, the employee was fired. The company alleged “fraud, disloyalty and breach of trust”. The man filed a lawsuit, but today a Court of Cassation annulled the last instance and agreed with the company. The particular case occurred in Spain.

“This attitude was not a one-time event, but was repeated continuously month after month, and with different intervals of duration of these calls, whereby he manifested fraud, disloyalty and distrust in the efforts entrusted,” said the document.

“While your job is to serve customers and resolve incidents, you have knowingly and repeatedly falsified data by failing to serve customers, who hire us to provide them with a service and for which we charge,” he notes.

In July 2022, the social court n. 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has closed a lawsuit brought by the worker. The lawyer confirmed the provisions of the dismissal letter and defined the employee’s behavior as “fraudulent and incorrect”, causing damage to colleagues with an overload of work corresponding to the defendant.

“We are dealing with ongoing deceptive behavior, not an isolated act, which violates the trust of the company, as it directly affects the way in which the plaintiff has provided the services of his professional category, it being understood that it has also affected others workers, because the plaintiff became the last in line to answer incoming calls”says the Judge.

Therefore, the Spanish justice has indicated that the dismissal It is “proportional to the seriousness of the acts committed”.