The dismissal of the employee of the executive director of Ourense, whose briefcase was illegally registered, was annulled

Social room in The Supreme Court of Xustiza of Galicia (TSXG) declared a disciplinary dismissal to an employee from Ourense Business Confederation (CEO) considering that the evidence used by that institution to cancel the employee’s contract was obtained illegally. It was opened without your consent and without legal protection, and briefcase that the injured party was forgotten and left in a public institution.

It was not revealed what information was inside, but for those responsible at the employer it meant checking “irregularities” that justified the dismissal. The judges do not think the same and state this in the decision in which they point out that access to its content is not legalized “neither for the purpose of identifying the owner, nor for the purpose of checking what is inside”. Because of this, the judges declared a violation of the employee’s fundamental right to privacy, condemning the executive director to pay her 6,000 euros, as well as to return her to work. They must pay him the wages he stopped receiving or, if the confederation so decides, give him compensation of 38,622 euros.

In the ruling, the judges report that the director of the employer’s department in Ourense was fired in January 2022, after the person went to the entity’s headquarters to deliver a briefcase that the employee had forgotten a few days earlier in a restaurant in the city. According to the resolution, the briefcase was received by two office workers, who decided to open it “to examine its contents.” She was the first to see him, immediately informing her companion, given what she had found. Both of them confirmed this at the oral hearing.

Seeing that it contained confederation documents, the two compañeras informed the general secretary, who agreed to search the briefcase in accordance with the provisions of Article 18 of the Workers’ Statute. That procedure, they say, was not opportune. “The attempt cannot be successful because the causal requirement that justifies the registration is that it is necessary to protect the business property and the property of other employees of the company, and this need in the case arose only as a result of the initial illegitimate approach,” the judges warn, noting that this first gesture “poisons the legitimacy of subsequent registration”.

The fact that it was not known who owned the briefcase does not justify its opening, the judges warn, reminding that “there was not the slightest doubt that there was a breach of contract by the person who owned the briefcase, nor was there any other circumstance that, for reasons of protection established by law business assets or workers justify access.

Despite everything, the employee who decided to look without asking does not have “the spirit to violate fundamental rights”, which serves as a relief. The verdict is not final.