Khaberni - The labor court in Alicante upheld the decision of a Spanish company specializing in express shipping services, to dismiss an employee without compensation after she habitually arrived at the workplace about 30 to 45 minutes before the start of the workday, despite repeated warnings from management.
Detailing further, the court considered the employee’s behavior to represent serious misconduct including disobedience of orders, illegitimate exploitation of the attendance system, and violation of professional trust.
The court clarified that the issue was not in the employee’s early arrival per se, but in her arriving before the official work start, where she could not perform her tasks independently, meaning that early arrival was neither beneficial for the company nor were there any tasks before the official time, creating tension among colleagues and disrupting the workflow.
The court added that the employee ignored both verbal and written warnings, and continued her behavior despite the company repeatedly notifying her that she could not work before the official entry time of 7:30 AM.
Although the employee claimed that her aim was to prepare early for work tasks and that the company had allowed her this practice for over two years, the court saw her actions as unjustified, especially since no other employee in the company had ever arrived before the set time.
This incident generated wide interest after it was reported in the Spanish media, considering it a rare case where extreme zeal for compliance with work converts into a legal violation.
