Barcelona bakery ordered to pay over $41,000 to worker who urinated in mixing bowls

CCTV captured the woman urinating in mixing bowls. Photo / 123RF

A Barcelona bakery has been ordered to pay more than $41,650 to a worker who was fired after being caught urinating in mixing bowls.

Catalonia’s High Court ruled that Neucroissant had acted unlawfully when it dismissed the woman after citing evidence gathered by a surveillance camera in a changing area used by staff.

CCTV footage had shown the woman, who has not been named, crouching and urinating on several occasions into containers used to produce the bakery’s goods.

Neucroissant said it had hired the services of a detective company to catch the worker.

The firm verified how the woman had “squatted, [and] urinated inside a bowl” while at work, the bakery said.

It alleged she had thrown the contents of the bowl into a sink, before rinsing it in water and “depositing it with the rest of the clean utensils that were later to be used in production tasks for the consumption of customers”.

The woman, who has not been named, received a dismissal letter while on sick leave in the summer of 2018, a decision she decided to challenge in the courts.

The court heard that the bakery, which made cakes and bread, did not have a designated changing room, meaning workers had to change in an area also used for production.

Under Spanish law, cameras cannot be installed in areas intended for employees’ rest and recreation, such as changing rooms, lavatories and dining rooms. Filming in such places constitutes an invasion of a person’s right to privacy.

The court noted in its ruling that employees had not been informed of the installation of the CCTV camera.

The bakery tried to argue that the recording was legitimate as the area concerned was used for food production, but the court rejected the claim because of the mixed use of the space.

It ordered Neucroissant to pay the woman €25,336 ($45,937) in compensation for pay not received as a result of her dismissal.