An employee of CIG wanted to work from home for personal reasons. However, CIG prohibited this. The developer now had to pay a fine of around 32,000 euros for discrimination.
A British employment tribunal has ordered CIG, the company behind Star Citizen, to pay a compensation of £27,000 (around 32,000 euros) to an employee. Specifically, it concerns workplace discrimination.
CIG had prohibited its employee from working from home, even though he was diagnosed with autism. This was reported by the English-speaking colleagues from Massivelyop.com
CIG never investigated the claim that employees work poorly at home
The plaintiff initially worked in an office in Wilmslow (UK) but switched to a home office after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to his own statement, he was able to work better with his autism from home than in a large office.
After CIG ordered a return to the office in the company’s new building in Manchester, the employee still wanted to work from home. However, CIG rejected this without discussion.
The employee was ultimately dismissed in July 2022, after he had repeatedly tried to fulfill his wishes.
What was the problem according to the court? CIG argued that work performance in the home office was significantly worse than in the office. However, the British court stated that the company had never properly investigated the alleged performance issues and found that the dismissal of the employee was disproportionate and discriminatory. The court stated in its ruling:
Normal performance measures, such as performance goals and regular appraisal meetings, could have been conducted online. We find that the defendant treated the plaintiff unfavorably because of something arising from his disability.
In total, CIG must pay the former employee £27,000: £14,000 for lost earnings and £12,000 compensation for emotional distress.
Home office under discussion
Home office under criticism: Companies and bosses regularly argue that working from home negatively affects performance. Individual employees would perform significantly worse if they were not motivated by high performers. This is especially a burden for large teams.
Additionally, an employee of an IT company was prohibited from working from home and had to return to the office. But he is not just accepting this: An employee is forced back to the office by the boss – he gets back at him shortly after, having his moment of triumph
