Mercedes unjustly fired Maastricht worker who accused manager of stalking, court rules

Mercedes-Benz unjustly fired a customer service employee in Maastricht after he had accused his manager of stalking him. The German car company must pay the man over 15,000 euros in compensation for unfair dismissal, RTL Nieuws reported from a recently published Limburg court ruling.

The court concluded that Mercedes-Benz did an inadequate investigation that focused not on the complaint against the female manager but on the behavior of the subordinate man who filed the complaint.

The 31-year-old man worked for the customer service department of the Mercedes-Benz branch in Maastricht since the summer of 2022. Last year, he was in a relationship with his manager. After they broke up, the woman kept forcing herself on him, the man said in his complaint. He said that the manager continued to harass him after the relationship ended, including an unannounced and unwanted visit to his home one evening.

Mercedes-Benz had the case investigated by a detective agency, which questioned the employee, the manager, and six colleagues. The agency concluded that the man, not the woman, was at fault, and he was summarily dismissed in December. In his dismissal, Mercedes-Benz said the man had falsely accused the manager and acted inappropriately himself, describing him as manipulative with a sex obsession and macho behavior.

The man fought his dismissal in court, seeking compensation rather than his job back. He said the allegations in his dismissal letter were “bizarre and incorrect” and damaging to his reputation.

The court in Maastricht ruled in the employee’s favor. The court considered it established that the man and his manager started a sexual relationship early in 2023 and that the woman harassed the man when it ended. The court also concluded that Mercedes-Benz’s investigation into the allegations was inadequate.

The investigation agency accepted the manager’s denial at face value and focused only on the man. The court called that incomprehensible, given that there were multiple starting points for further investigation. For example, the man discussed the sexual harassment with his GP last year, complaining of stress, sleep problems, and a loss of appetite. The GP prescribed him anti-depressants. The man was also reportedly struck by the woman in the company’s canteen, but this was not further investigated.

Based on the inadequate investigation alone, the court found the man’s dismissal unlawful. It ordered Mercedes-Benz to pay the man a series of severance payments totaling 15,300 euros, as well as his legal fees of 1,500 euros.