When an employee starts his vacation on his own initiative

12.7.2018 – If a worker receives a trip that must be taken in the short term, he may lose his job if he accepts the gift without asking his employer for permission in a timely manner. This follows from a judgment of the Landesarbeitsgericht Düsseldorf of 10 July 2018 (8 Sa 87/18).

The applicant worked for her employer as a manager with control activities. She completed a Master's degree in Business Administration at work, which she successfully completed on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.

Spontaneous Leave

As part of the examination, the wife had her employer for two days on Thursday and Friday asked, which was also granted to her. However, the plaintiff did not appear at the office the following Monday.

Instead, she sent an email to her supervisor at 12:04 pm that day with the subject "Spontaneous Vacation". In her, she told him that she had been surprised by her father because of the exam pbaded with a trip to Mallorca. In the rush and euphoria of the moment, she had no way of recording her absence in the company's computer system.

She would not come to work between June 26 and June 30, asking for a short answer. At the same time, the plaintiff apologized for the "surprise". Five hours later, his supervisor also informed him by email that his presence was necessary for urgent operational reasons. The leave can therefore best be granted on the Friday of the current week and on Monday and Tuesday

Warning at the place of termination

The next morning, the plaintiff informed her supervisor that she could not come to the office in the short term. Because they are already on the weekend in Mallorca When the complainant also appeared the following Monday at the service, broke the collar of his employer. After hearing the business committee, he terminated the employment contract on August 31, 2017.

The complainant then commenced an action for protection against dismissal. It justified, inter alia, that, given the particular circumstances at best, a warning, but not a breach of the employment relationship, would have been justified.

The judges of the Dusseldorf Labor Court did not want to rally to this reasoning. They rejected the claim as unfounded.

Insistent Violation of Contractual Obligations

According to the judges, the Applicant stated at the latest, in her email of Tuesday, June 27, 2017, that she was on unauthorized leave. Wait and will not seem to be working. She had thus persistently violated her contractual obligation to work

The complainant had not proved that her supervisor had accepted the short-term extension of her leave granted until Friday. In light of these circumstances, the judges found that a warning instead of a dismissal was unjustified. After all, her employer had the right to fire her without notice.

The plaintiff, nevertheless, got out of it with a black eye. Your employer was stuck on the notice. However, he paid him compensation in the amount of 4,000 euros. It was a small monthly salary.