Firm Can't Fire Man For 1.8 Cent Theft

An anonymous reader writes "A German company that fired a man for the theft of 1.8 euro cents (two US cents) worth of electricity had no grounds for sacking him, a court ruled, dismissing the firm's appeal against his reinstatement. Network administrator Oliver Beel lost his job after charging his Segway, a two-wheeled electric vehicle, at work in May 2009. After he connected the vehicle to the firm's power source for 1-1/2 hours, his boss asked him to remove it. Twelve days later Beel found himself without a job."

Comments

Part II -- the lawsuit

[nbauman]

Here's a few more details in the German story, thanks to Google translate. (Contains amusing malapropisms.)

Apparently German workers have legal rights.

If they get fired arbitrarily, they can sue and get their job back.

http://www.bild.de/BILD/politik/wirtschaft/2010/09/02/stromklau-gericht-urteilt/mann-behaelt-seinen-job-es-ging-um-1-komma-8-cent.html

discrimination

[dumuzi]

Perhaps he was fired for owning a Segway not for charging it. This may be a case of ginger discrimination, like "kick a Segway day".

Re:discrimination

[jayme0227]

Or perhaps he was fired for something else entirely and they were just looking for an excuse to can his ass. That's usually my assumption when I hear about people being fired for seemingly innocuous actions that pretty much everyone does. I've seen several occasions where lazy people show up to work (or get sick too often) and then complain about how unfair it is that they were fired for something seemingly innocuous.

Pro Tip for Beel and others in his situation: The reason listed is just an excuse to get rid of you while mitigating liability. Nobody likes you, you lazy slob.

Talk about overreaction

[Locke2005]

Make him pay for the electricity and be done with it.