DAF warehouse worker 'accidentally' involved in multi-million dollar theft, should not be fired

This is evident from a ruling made public on Friday by the East Brabant court. The 49-year-old logistics employee had worked for the truck manufacturer for 28 years and says he knew nothing about the theft of millions.

DAF initially noticed small differences in the stock of injectors in the first half of last year. These are parts of about 20 centimeters in size, which are placed in a truck engine. An employee who was caught removing these parts was fired at the time.

But that did not put an end to the thefts, on the contrary. During three counts from September, a total of thirteen pallets with more than 2800 sprayers appeared to have disappeared from the warehouse. The value of one sprayer is more than 1000 euros. The total value of these thefts thus amounts to more than 2.9 million euros.

After investigation by Hoffmann Bedrijfsrecherche and examination of images from installed cameras, DAF Trucks filed a report with the police and fired another three employees. DAF also tried to say goodbye to a fifth employee, who had driven away four pallets of parts from the warehouse in October.

This man, who had worked for DAF for 28 years, stated during his interrogation that he had only carried out an order from his team leader. He said he had no knowledge of the theft. "I have a family to support. I don't do stupid things," he said during the conversation.

The logistics employee did admit that he had sensed at the time that something was wrong, but that he had not reported it to his employer. "I don't want anything to do with it. I just want to do my job."

DAF Trucks now blames the man for not sharing his suspicions with his employer. Because he allegedly 'looked away' and 'kept silent', the truck manufacturer no longer wants to continue with him.

However, the now suspended employee refused to sign a severance agreement. The company then went to court to be able to fire him. DAF claims that there is a case of culpable conduct and a disturbed working relationship, and does not want to pay the man a cent in severance pay. The man demanded that he be allowed to return to work.

The verdict, which was made public on Friday, shows that the subdistrict court judge believes that the logistics employee should have reported the incident to his supervisor, because he felt that the matter was not right. "He can be blamed for not doing so."

On the other hand, according to the subdistrict court judge, the employees were not properly informed of the company rules that oblige them to report such incidents. This is DAF's fault.

The subdistrict court judge also understands that the logistics employee did not report the incident, partly because it concerned an order from managers 'on whom he depended at work and who could make his life miserable, which had happened before'.

The subdistrict court judge therefore finds the dismissal of an employee with an otherwise flawless employment relationship of 28 years to be too severe a measure. The judge also rules that there is no question of a disturbed employment relationship. DAF should have limited itself to giving an official warning and must let the man return to work.