Spanish Court Rules Detective Surveillance Cannot Justify Sick-Employee Dismissal

A labour court in A Coruña, Spain, has declared the summary dismissal of a female employee unlawful after her employer hired a private detective to monitor her while she was on sick leave following a stroke. The ruling found that the company’s attempt to use the surveillance footage as evidence of her ability to work was legally flawed and amounted to discrimination.

The case centred on whether engaging in everyday activities during a period of certified sick leave constitutes a breach of duty that warrants termination. The employee was absent from work due to the after-effects of a stroke. Her employer commissioned a detective to track her daily movements.

The investigator filmed the woman, among other things, shopping at a supermarket. The company argued these images proved she was either fit to return to her job or was jeopardising her recovery. The labour court in A Coruña rejected this reasoning. In its judgment, the court stated that simple routines of daily life, such as buying groceries, do not demonstrate a general capacity for work. Such activities are not necessarily incompatible with a medically certified inability to work, especially following a serious illness like a stroke.

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Legality of Observation and Financial Penalties

A notable aspect of the decision concerns the legality of the surveillance method. The court clarified that the detective’s observation in public spaces was, in principle, lawful. The employee’s privacy was not improperly violated by filming on the street or inside shops. However, the outcome of the surveillance did not validate the grounds for dismissal, because the employer’s interpretation of the images was legally misguided.

The ruling carries significant financial and personnel consequences for the company. The dismissal was declared void, meaning the woman must be reinstated. The court also ordered back payment of all salaries owed since the termination. In addition, it awarded the employee €5,000 in compensation for damages.

Protection Against Discrimination in Long-Term Illness

The judges characterised the employer’s actions as discriminatory. In their view, the dismissal was primarily based on the employee’s state of health, without a valid legal basis for claiming a breach of duty. The verdict thereby reinforces the rights of workers who must stay away from their jobs due to severe chronic or acute illnesses.

Legal experts commenting on the case noted that employers bear a high duty of care when evaluating sick notes and deploying surveillance measures. While public-space observation may be permissible for uncovering genuine fraud, normal expressions of daily life must not be misused to push ill employees out of the workplace. The ruling underscores that medical assessments of work capacity remain the domain of healthcare professionals and cannot be replaced by snapshots from private investigators.

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