A sales manager at Foodhub was dismissed for working remotely from Egypt without approval. Despite the dismissal, the company must pay nearly 800,000 SEK in damages due to improper termination procedures.
Remote Work from Egypt Leads to Costly Dismissal for Sales Manager
Remote Work from Egypt Leads to Costly Dismissal for Sales Manager
A sales manager worked from Egypt without approval from his employer, leading to his dismissal. A costly decision: the company now has to pay 800,000 SEK in damages.
Tanveer Shah, a local sales manager at the British company Foodhub, was expected to spend at least four days a week in the field to coach his sales team and lead them on-site. However, his expenses were noticeably lower than others in similar positions at the company.
This discrepancy led his boss to question whether Tanveer Shah was truly in the field. Was the sales team receiving on-site coaching?
Not at all, it turned out. He wasn't even working from home. In fact, he was in Egypt, where he had relatives. How long had he been there? No one knew. Likely for several weeks. Not even Tanveer Shah himself could answer whether he had been there for days, a week, or more, according to The Independent, quoting Judge David Maxwell.
"He was expected to be in the UK and perform his job, so it's a surprising gap in his memory," says the judge.
Nevertheless, it has now been decided that Tanveer Shah should be compensated—with over 60,000 British pounds, nearly 800,000 Swedish kronor. The reason is that Foodhub did not handle his dismissal correctly for not working on-site.
Claims He Contracted COVID
No one has denied his stay in Egypt. He was indeed there at the end of 2021, but he claims that he contracted COVID during the trip and therefore could not return to the UK as planned. This delayed his ability to work on-site.
In August 2022, Foodhub's CEO had enough of the lacking expenses and confronted Tanveer Shah personally. According to the British tribunal handling the case, the CEO was furious that he was "illegally receiving a salary" despite not doing his job.
He was fired on the spot.
He then sued Foodhub for the manner in which they chose to dismiss him.
HR Pointed Out Company's Mistake
An HR representative promptly pointed out to the CEO that this would mean the company needed to compensate Tanveer Shah for how he was let go. Despite the fact that he actually got his job back—for a short time. But the relationship between him and the company had soured too much.
After an internal investigation into his role in the company, he was once again let go.
"I started on a lousy salary and doubled it immediately," he told the Daily Mail.
"I worked as hard as I could and broke sales records. After all that, why would I have dropped all responsibility and started working from Egypt?"
He also claims that he genuinely had COVID.
"When I got to the airport in Egypt, I tested positive for COVID. I called my job immediately and said I couldn't fly home," he explains.
And since it was four years ago, Shah couldn't remember exact dates when asked during the legal process.
"But the trip to Egypt was my annual two weeks there. I only stayed longer because of COVID."
Now it is clear that Foodhub is considered to have dismissed Shah improperly.