TLDR;
The Orléans Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of a call-centre manager who accessed her subordinates’ computer sessions without their knowledge to read and share their private messages. The court found that this breached confidentiality, while rejecting other allegations as either too old or insufficiently proven.
- The manager had worked for the company since 2007 and became a team leader in 2016.
- The appellate ruling overturned an earlier labor-court decision awarding her €51,233 in compensation.
- The decisive evidence was the transfer of disputed emails from her account at a time consistent with her presence at work.
Unauthorized Access and the Dismissal
The events cited in the case took place on 13 April 2022. The manager logged into a subordinate’s computer session while that employee was absent and without informing them, then forwarded messages to a service supervisor. The company said this was part of a wider practice: she had allegedly asked several employees for their passwords so she could access their computers in their absence and read their conversations, including copying messages exchanged with colleagues.
The manager, who had joined the company as a telephone adviser in 2007 and became a team leader in 2016, was dismissed in July 2022. She challenged the decision, and the labor court in Montargis initially ruled in her favor, awarding her €51,233. The Orléans Court of Appeal overturned that judgment in a ruling dated 15 October.
Evidence and the Court’s Findings
The appeal judges relied on material evidence, including the transfer of the disputed emails from the employee’s mailbox at 5:26 p.m., a time consistent with the manager being on the premises. They rejected her claim that a supervisor had staged an IT setup to frame her, finding that there was no evidence to support it.
The employer also accused her of promoting cosmetics she sold at work and of damaging the team’s atmosphere. The judges dismissed the cosmetics allegations because the events were too old to be sanctioned, and found the claims about workplace atmosphere insufficiently established. The dismissal was upheld solely because she had accessed and shared her team members’ communications, breaching their confidentiality. As a result, she is no longer entitled to the €51,233 awarded by the labor court.
