Lidl manager sacked over “fraud” awarded €170K compensation

Supermarket chain Lidl has been ordered to pay €170,000 compensation to a manager who was unfairly dismissed after 17 years’ service.

The man was accused of doctoring the working hours register so that employees at the branch in Rotterdam, but the city’s district court said there was evidence of fraud.

He admitted that he had removed hours worked by his staff from the system, but he told the court he did so because they would otherwise have been rejected by the system because the employees’ details were missing.

He also said staff were aware of how many hours they were recorded as working because he posted the results in the canteen. The court found he did not benefit personally from the unrecorded hours.

The judges said dismissal was too strong a penalty for the manager’s breach of the rules and a warning would have been more appropriate, especially given his otherwise exemplary record of 17 years’ service.