Napping in the workplace: can your employer fire you for you to be asleep?

The nap is prohibited in a company, especially when it is detrimental to its image. This is what has led to the dismissal of Adama Cissé, agent of cleanliness in Paris.

Stitch a small sum to the office, but at what price ? For some companies, falling asleep during their work day, even during his break, is a serious misconduct resulting in termination. Adama Cissé, and many others, have made the bitter experience.

This agent of cleanliness of the city of Paris has been terminated by his employer, Polysotys, (a subsidiary of Derichebourg), in September 2018 after the release of a photo showing it lying on the ledge of a shop window in paris, and barefoot. Dressed in his work clothes, he seemed to be asleep. "This is what are the local taxes of Paris, to pay the officers to cleanliness, to free, one understands why Paris is so disgusting", complained the author of the tweet. On January 14, Adama Cissé has challenged the decision of the justice of his business in front of the prud'hommes to seek redress.

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If the case is of a character somewhat unusual, the evidence being a photo circulated on Twitter, it is not exceptional for the same.

What does the law say ?

In principle, any text in the labour Code strictly prohibits the take a nap at his place of work. "This is really a case-by-case basis, depending on the circumstances and the case law is very abundant on this subject," says Master Eric Rocheblave, lawyer specializing in labour law. How long the nap does she have lasted ? Is this the first time that the employee is to be penalized ? Is that his break time was respected ? A lot of parameters are taken into account in the decision of justice.

For example, in February 2016, she had been admitted to the dismissal for serious misconduct of a firefighter assigned to the airport security and who had fallen asleep during his work. Conversely, five years earlier, the Court of Cassation had considered that the employee is being asleep in a waiting room where one of his clients had asked him to wait, had not been guilty of serious misconduct.

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Only rule : "if the snooze time complained of are not dated and their duration is not known, the grievance has not been established", says a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Angers. "Now it is the employer who reports the grievance so it is up to him to provide proof," says Master Rocheblave to the Express. "A micro-nap of five minutes this is not the same as a sum of a time, it is for this reason that the case-law application of these two evidence," he adds.

this is precisely what intends to assert Master Joachim Scavello, counsel for Adama Cissé : his photo "taken [his] knowledge, and made public" does not constitute "acceptable evidence". To the extent that it "provides only a snapshot because it was taken by a person, and we don't even know if it has been published in the wake or a posteriori. On the scope, we don't know any better. It is the employer who has deducted with the route of the truck that the break had been more than 20 minutes," detailed there. A point on which the agent of cleanliness is justified by explaining that he was subject to the breaks decided by the driver of the truck that accompanied it. The latter did so, him no longer, not complied with the break time but was not punished, emphasizes the lawyer.

A nap which is prejudicial to the image of the company

But this is not only for this so-called nap that Adama Cissé was dismissed. The first ground advanced by Polysotys is "harming the image of the company". "During your vacation, you've been seen lying on the ledge of a window of a trade, and you left your shoes for security. This attitude is revealing your desire to doze off during your service has been the subject of a severe claim of our client"), has notified the company in its termination letter, quoted by Ouest France.

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Carnets de prud'hommes

"She worked for the Republic in motion, but you will need to remove the scale Macron" "permanent among us, the employee sells her creations on the Net" "let's look at the e-mails of its hierarchy to see if his superior merit prison"

"You can do what you want on your break time, but on your place of work you can't do everything and anything, including for security reasons", analysis Master Rocheblave. "It may be a ground of assent, but there is a rule of proportionality between the fault and sanction," retorted the lawyer Adama Cissé. The latter says his side as if he was lying, it was to try to relieve a foot pain and not to relax.