GEBE pays a heavy price for firing Sharine Daniel
PHILIPSBURG -- Utilities Company GEBE is finally rid of its former Head Internal Audit Sharine Daniel, providing that it does not withdraw its request to dissolve the labor agreement and that it pays Daniel 350,000 guilders ($195,530) in compensation. The Court in First Instance issued the order to dissolve the labor contract on June 25.
Daniel, 44, started working for GEBE as Head Internal Audit on June 16, 2013, for a monthly salary of 15,100 guilders ($8,436) plus a vacation allowance and a thirteenth month.
In November 2021 the legal battle between Daniel and her employer started to take shape. On November 3 the court ruled that GEBE had unjustly fired Daniel on the spot two times. The court rejected GEBE’s request to dissolve the labor contract and Daniel was admitted to her work again.
In September of the following year GEBE asked Daniel to take leave and await the outcome of an investigation into the cyber attack that hit the company on March 16, 2022.
In March 2023, the company shared the results of the investigation with her and the following month Daniel requested to be allowed to return to work. That did not happen: on May 17 GEBE asked the court to dissolve the labor contract. Three months later, on August 30, the court rejected the request and ordered the company to allow its employee to start working again. That did not happen either.
On September 6, 2023, the Executive Management Team (EMT) expressed in a letter its grave concerns about Daniel’s potential reintegration into the work force: “She has exhibited a pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the organization and raises serious ethical and professional concerns.”The EMT explicitly stated that it prefers not to work with Daniel.
A day after the EMT-letter, staff employees expressed similar concerns. “We can no longer allow the destruction of this company through the works of a minute group of employees, orchestrated by Daniel.” The letter of the employees cites leaking of company information, intimidation and loss of confidence as the basis for its concerns.
On September 20, 2023, Daniel served the court order of August 30; five days later, GEBE asked the court to suspend it. On November 3, the court rejected this request, but GEBE did not give up: on October 10 it appealed the August 30 court order.
On November 6 Daniel reported for work, but the company did not admit her. In an attempt to get the upper hand GEBE asked a company called Development Consulting Center to investigate Daniel’s functioning.
The resulting report became available in March 2024. It concluded that 15 percent of the staff opposed Daniel’s reintegration in the company and that there was overwhelming support for the claims against her. “We question the likelihood that she will be able to function effectively,” the report stated. “Her return would do more harm than good to GEBE and its employees.”
GEBE’s appeal against the August 30 court order did not do well: on June 18, 2024, the Common Court of Justice confirmed the court order.
In the most recent court case, GEBE asked (once more) to dissolve the labor contract, while Daniel demanded that the court reject this request. She asked the court to order GEBE to admit her to her place of work and to impose a penalty of $1,000 for each day the company would not comply. She also asked the court to sentence GEBE to pay the costs for the procedure of a bit more than $57,000.
The court ruled that to even consider the third request for the dissolution of the labor contract requires that there are new circumstances. It concluded that this is the case, referring to letters from the EMT and from staff employees as well as to the research into Daniel’s functioning by the Development Consulting Center.
The court rejected the dissolution of the labor contract based on urgent reasons for lack of substantiation but it allowed the dissolution for “important reasons” due to changed circumstances.
“The labor contract has to end in the short term,” the court ruled, adding that the relationship between GEBE and Daniel is marred by “a rich judicial history” and that parties had entered into one court case after the other since 2021. “Parties stand diametrically opposed to each other,” the ruling states, adding that Daniel claims that GEBE has started a witch hunt against her. “The court does not see how a return should take shape, because the EMT and a part of the staff strongly oppose her return.”
GEBE’s temporary manager Troy Washington said during the court hearing that he does not see fertile grounds for a good cooperation with Daniel and that the support base for a return had been affected.
The court order contains a message for both GEBE and Daniel: “Daniel should not think that GEBE gets off lightly because you did not get a fair chance to return to work.”
In an attempt to limit the amount of compensation it has to pay to Daniel GEBE called on the “habe nichts / habe wenig”-argument (I have nothing, I have little). But the court noted that GEBE had not provided any insight to prove that it is in financial difficulties.
The court calculated Daniel’s monthly income at 17,615 guilders ($9,841); this amount includes vacation allowance and the thirteenth month. Based on ten years of service, the court set the amount of compensation at 350,000 guilders ($195,530), adding that this includes the right to cessantia. The court saw no reason for a higher compensation to the tune of 2.4 million guilders ($1,340,782).
GEBE will only get away from paying the compensation if it withdraws its request to dissolve the labor contract. Given the history between the company and its employer it is highly unlikely that this will happen.
###
GEBE & Sharine Daniel dossier>>>
###
ADVERTISEMENT
LOGIN TO READ MORE... THIS IS A PREMIUM ARTICLE. YOU NEED AT LEAST YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION TO ACCESS THIS ARTICLE.
...
Some articles or portions of articles are restricted exclusively for our registered members and paying subscribers. Please login here to read the rest of this article. If you do not already have a paid subscription, you will need to register here and pay for a subscription first in order to gain access to our website to read articles or contents that are restricted to paid subscribers. You need to buy at least a Day subscription for 75ct to gain access. Or log in first if you are already a registered paying subscriber to this website. Click here to register and support our work with a paid subscription.
