Controversial firing
October 7, 2009
The 57-year-old secretary, identified in the German media as Magdalene H, worked for the builders' association in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia for more than three decades.
The incident took place last July when she organized a conference buffet for her boss and his guests and helped herself to two rolls and a Frikadelle, a German meatball specialty, during the preparations.
Boss insists firing was right thing
German mass-selling newspaper Bild reported on Wednesday that Magdalene H was confronted by her boss after a colleague noticed some food was missing. But once she admitted to consuming the meatball, she was fired.
"She believed her behavior was acceptable," her lawyer, Wolfgang Pinkepank, told Bild. "Bread and meatballs that are left over after conferences are allowed to be eaten by workers. If she had been reprimanded, she would not have done it again."
The newspaper reported that a judge in the courtroom where the secretary and her employer, Hermann Schulte-Hiltrop, met on Tuesday urged Schulte-Hiltrop to issue a warning instead of a firing, saying the incident was not a classic case of theft.
But Schulte-Hiltrop, the head of the builders' association, insisted he had done the right thing in firing her.
"From the outside it naturally looks like a minor offence," he said. "But we work on highly sensitive information here. And if you don't trust someone any longer, it's not a good feeling."
"Inhumane and immoral"
The case, which is to be officially heard in January 2010, has sparked anger among labor unions and politicians.
Michael Groschek, the secretary general of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in North-Rhine Westphalia called the incident "inhumane and immoral."
"We shouldn't tolerate managers getting hefty bonuses despite squandering millions on speculative trading and ordinary people being turned out on the streets on account of eating a meatball," Groschek told news agency AP.
Juergen Czech of the labor union IG Construction, Agriculture and Environment said the employer needed to ask himself what the firing meant for the secretary, warning that at her age, Magdalene H, would have difficulties finding a new job.
It's not the first time that firing employees for seemingly minor infractions has seized headlines in Germany.
In February this year, a Berlin court ruled that a former cashier for the Kaiser's supermarket chain was rightfully fired after allegedly taking 1.30 euros ($1.91) in bottle deposits, though she maintains the termination was because of her union activities.
Bild newspaper reported that in April, a bus company in Regensburg in Bavaria fired a 46-year-old driver for stopping her bus to rescue a toad on the road.
sp/AP/dpa
Editor: Nancy Isenson