A remarkable ruling by the subdistrict court in Tilburg this week: an employee apparently maintained a rich love life. In a few months, he sent a total of 1255 WhatsApp messages to various women. The employment contract included, among other things, a company policy which stated: “occasional and limited use of electronic communication tools for personal purposes is permitted. Even with this use, the rules of care, integrity, and good reputation must be observed”
After the termination of the employment contract, the employee claimed payment for unused vacation days. The employer disputed that they had to pay this and invoked set-off of the damages they had suffered due to the employee’s actions. Those damages included, among other things, unlawfully paid wages because the employee had exchanged a large number of WhatsApp messages during working hours using the mobile phone provided to him. The court sided with the employer in this matter. The frequent use of WhatsApp for private purposes during working hours, without necessity and without the employer’s knowledge or consent, remained the employee’s responsibility. By his actions, the employee violated company rules and thus failed to fulfill this obligation under the employment contract. The damage was then calculated based on the number of messages, time per message, and hourly wage, and this damage could be offset against the outstanding vacation days.
