CuracaoA baggage handler at a Curacao airport summarily fired employees last summer because they saw a colleague secretly searching bags and possibly removing items from them. One of them appealed his dismissal in court, but it was rejected. It can be easily identified from camera photos.
The baggage handling company, AFS, had to prove to the judge that the man had been rightfully dismissed. This turned out not to be too complicated: AFS was able to provide video images on a USB stick from July 6, 2023, captured by a security camera pointed at baggage claim number 2 at Curaçao Airport. The employee appears to be “easily identifiable” in those photos, the judge wrote in the ruling, “specifically as the employee with the gray hat.” The man also admits that it clearly shows in the photos.
The video shows the employee working with four of his colleagues. He takes bags from the luggage cart and then walks to the cart next to it, where a colleague works. He looks into that carriage, takes out the suitcases and disappears from sight “for a while.” Then he returns to the scene and looks at the luggage cart again. A colleague appears there opening several bags and appearing to search through their contents. According to the judge, it is not clear that the colleague also takes anything from those bags, but it is clear that the employee sees his colleague opening the bags and searching them. The man also confirms that he saw this.
“He has gone beyond his limits.”
It goes without saying that the colleague who, according to the video clip, opened the bags and searched their contents, went far beyond his limits. After all, the baggage handler must, without a doubt, refrain from such actions.” Although it cannot be concluded from the video that the colleague in the baggage cart stole or damaged anything, it can be considered an attempted theft. Ultimately, no other reasonable explanation can be imagined for opening the bags and searching through their contents other than to examine whether there is anything he likes and, if so, to take it away.”
Through the photos, the judge was convinced that the employee objecting to his dismissal must have realized what his colleague was doing. This makes him complicit. He may have been watching when he was out of the picture for a while, but this has not been proven. In any event, the judge finds that summary dismissal is justified. The dismissed man must therefore also pay legal costs of 1,500 euros.
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