Life as a Box of Chocolates - 8 Years Later, She Finds Out: The Shaft

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 1 January 2019)




In Bursa in 2011, a cleaning lady who was working in the municipal
building for a subcontractor company was fired without severance pay
for taking an empty chocolate box from a cloakroom.  Now, after an
8-year legal battle (!), a high court has ruled that the subcontractor was
justified in withholding the severance pay.

The cleaning lady took the empty chocolate box to use for her needles
and pins but the box's original recipient, who had gotten the chocolates
as a gift, reported it as missing to the building's security guard. The
cleaning lady, who had a spotless 16-year record with the subcontractor,
was charged with theft and fired without severance pay.  However, a
Bursa court ruled that withholding the severance pay from this model
employee was wrong and ordered the subcontractor to pay it. 

Nevertheless, the subcontractor appealed the order (!) and a higher
court decided that the cleaning lady had taken someone else's
property, i.e. an empty box of chocolates (!), which was clearly
wrong so the first court's decision was voided.  A still higher court
reviewed the case and while acknowledging the cleaning lady's
excellent 16-year work record, decided that "the company doubtless
cannot be expected to continue plaintiff's employment since she
exhibited this improper behavior."  And although the reviewing
court noted that withholding severance pay was quite a harsh
penalty relative to the infraction, it sided with the subcontractor.


        So ends 8 years of walking on needles and pins.