Monique Vieira Lessa
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The Tenth Panel of the Regional Labor Court of Minas Gerais upheld the dismissal for just cause of an employee who used his cell phone excessively during working hours.
According to the judge of the 30th Labor Court of Belo Horizonte, such conduct characterizes indiscipline and carelessness on the part of the employee in the performance of his duties, and this understanding was ratified by the Court.
As established during the course of the case, the dismissed employee was repeatedly late for work, missed work unjustifiably and made excessive use of his cell phone during the working day, receiving numerous warnings from the company for such behavior.
A witness, heard in an internal process carried out by the company to investigate serious misconduct, confirmed that the former employee had received several warnings, both for frequent lateness and for excessive use of the telephone during work.
The witness also clarified that the problem was not that he was answering his cell phone during working hours, but that he was fiddling with the device while at his workstation, focusing on it for too long.
It should be noted that when he was heard in the internal proceedings, the worker did not object to the reasons given for his dismissal for just cause.
Thus, the court validated the dismissal for just cause in light of the employee’s characterization of negligence, on the grounds that the company had complied with the gradation of the penalty applied and had respected the right to a full defense and an adversarial hearing during the internal process that took place at the company.
