Helpful cashier ABN Amro loses unemployment benefits in addition to a job

This is evident from a decision issued on Friday by the Nord Holland District Court in Haarlem.

Tighten the rules

The woman has worked at ABN Amro for eighteen years, the last few years of which have been at the Schiphol Airport branch. There I handled about fifty deals a day.

In 2020, ANB Amro decided to stop exchanging money after De Nederlandsche Bank tightened rules, in part due to the money laundering risks of criminal money.

swap trick

In July of that year, a desk clerk served a client who wanted to exchange a 500-euro banknote. She advised the guy to buy a $1 bill, so you could give him smaller bills.

After the bank learned of the transaction, the employer went to court to fire the woman. According to the bank, there was guilty behavior, dysfunction and a disrupted working relationship.

Customer service

According to the woman, the bank was not allowed to evict her because the rules were not sufficiently explained to her. The cashier also emphasized that the alteration trick itself didn’t make it better, but just wanted to serve the customer.

At the beginning of 2021, the Harlem District Court ruled in favor of the employer. ABN Amro was allowed to put the woman on the street without transfer or severance pay.

Tail

The ruling by the North Holland court, which was published on Friday, shows that the mouse still has a tail. On appeal, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled in April 2022 that although the woman had acted diligently, it still granted her a transitional payment of €12,500 on the basis of ‘reasonableness and fairness’.

However, this was the end of good news for the woman. The ruling shows that UWV ruled in 2021 that despite working for eighteen years at ABN Amro, she did not receive unemployment benefits because she became unemployed. To protest this decision, the woman went to court.

WW . whistle

The UWV is obligated to form its own opinion as to whether an applicant for unemployment benefits has become unemployed, regardless of any court decision, and must also substantiate this opinion.

The court’s new course of action was of no use to the former treasurer. The court recently ruled that the UWV was justified in finding that the woman lost her job through her own fault and could therefore whistle for unemployment benefit.

According to the court, the woman should have known that the exchange deception was not allowed and that high integrity requirements were imposed on bank employees. “Not receiving unemployment benefits may have serious consequences for the employee, but this does not outweigh the severity of the behaviour.”