Almost 9,000 euros moral damages for Burnout obtained, in court, an employee from Cluj of Betfair Romania Development. Specialist HR Doru Șupere claims that it is an important premiere in Romania, because employees do not know their rights and legislation is outdated.
The employee was brought to the exhaustion of the chief of Aei. Photo: Shutterstock
Premiere in Romania: The Cluj Court forced a company to pay damages for the professional exhaustion of an employee. The decision remained final, because it was not appealed by the parties.
Betfair Romania Development, a company for digital applications development in the sports betting industry with over 2000 employees in Cluj, will pay a former employee from the HR Department of Moral Damage worth 7,500 euros plus medical expenses of almost 1,340 euros.
“The reason? “The work environment led the employee to Burnout. That phenomenon that some multinational ones put on account of the “lack of resilience” of the employees, but which the court recognized as real and extremely harmful”, Reports hackingwork.ro.
The employee became hospitalized with serious health disorders, including insomnia, panic attacks and deep depression, later diagnosed as Burnout Syndrome.
The employee had asked for 50,000 euros, given the long period in which he needed treatment.
“For Betfair the compensation of almost 9,000 euros represents” money money “. For this reason, they did not even appeal. The employee had asked for 50,000 euros. She spent much more. Think he needed 2 years and some treatment, psychologists, pills. Then, the fact that he was on the bar, that he had a small working capacity. All the expenses caused by Burnout were much higher than what he received. It is great that the sentence was given in favor of the employee, on the other hand, is deeply unfair from the perspective of the amount“, Explains Doru a little for” Truth “.
The HR expert claimed that it is probably the first such decision in Romania or at least the first to be well known. Why?
“First of all, people are not aware of their rights, they do not know the labor law. Secondly, the legislation is seriously outdated by reality. The employee won in court, however, because he had a very well documented file, including testimony to her colleagues ”, says the expert HR.
What actually happened?
The former employee of Betfair Romania Development, a recruitment specialist, woke up in an excessive volume of work, without support, without the possibility of delegating tasks, without a clear limit of responsibilities, but with permanent stress, frequent overtime, tasks Addition impossible to refuse and with constant terms of terms, the source quoted shows.
Due to the accumulated stress, the employee became hospitalized with serious health disorders, including insomnia, panic attacks and deep depression, later diagnosed as Burnout Syndrome, according to Clujust.ro.
Until he had the courage to say stop and act in court.
Betfair went to the classic corporate strategy: “We do not know, we were not officially announced, the employee had internal resources available ”, Hakingwork looks.
Only the court considered that the company ignored the reality and did not take sufficient measures to prevent the professional exhaustion of the employee.
Colleagues testified for the victim
Some colleagues of the victim were present in the court and testified in favor of the applicant. “This situation is a rarity, because employees are afraid to lose their jobs. In this case, it was possible to happen because they had already left the company. The company has a big problem with the head of the HR department because many employees have dismissed ”Says a whisper.
The director of the HR department, the direct head of the victim at the time of the damage, was asked to present his point of view in court, but refused to present himself and sent a small official of the company.
“After this incident, the chief has advanced in the hierarchy of the corporation and now holds the position of general manager of the company. This advance shows how much the company values the moral and social responsibility principles that it is clear and how much it is concerned about the health of its employees ”shows on hakingwork.ro.
There is a connection between working conditions and employee health status
The judges decided that there is a causality between the working conditions and the health problems of the former employee, which is why they forced Betfair Romania Development to pay some moral damages of 7,500 euros.
“Moreover, the judges found that there is a direct connection between the medical expenses and the affections of the employee, caused by the stressful working environment, obliging the company to pay the amount of 6,691.2 lei representing medical expenses proved by official documents for the period in which it was admitted. In the hospital ”the quoted source shows.
The real value of the costs of treatments, medicines and psychotherapy sessions paid by the applicant for over two years exceeds 10,000 euros, Hakingwork shows. Also, the fact that it could not carry out its professional activity for a long period and lived with the support of the family was not sufficiently compensated by the sentence.
“The decision remained final, because Betfair Romania Development decided not to appeal. In this way, the company practically acknowledged its guilt and it was satisfied that the value of the damage paid to the employee was very small ”, explained the quoted source.
The Cluj Court thus raised a large red flag on the toxic practices of work in the national premiere.
The decision of the Cluj Tribunal represents a turning point for the Romanian labor market, believes Doru Șupere.
So far the burnout was treated as a personal problem: “You have not managed the stress well” “you have to improve your task management” or “What, you are upset for so much?”.
Now, the court confirms that the employer is responsible for the mental health of his employees. If a company does not take care of her people, she can pay consistent damages for this.
Similar cases in which the court decided differently
In the past years we had similar cases in Romania in which the courts protected the rights of the employees, but never because the employee reached “Burnout” due to the stressful work environment.
For example, in the autumn of 2024, the company Amazon based in Iași was obliged by the court to pay 200,000 lei for an employee for “moral harassment”, an immoral practice that aimed to obtain the employee’s resignation and to leave the organization without AI AI Compensatory salaries are paid, Hakingwork shows.
Or in 2023 a company specialized in the manufacture of chemicals was obliged by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to pay moral damages of 10,000 euros to an employee because he tried to obtain his resignation, after she had to work in a stress. continuously and was harassed at work.
According to avocatnet.ro, the labor law from us requires employers to provide employees to safety and health at work. Starting from the Labor Code and reaching specific, specific regulations, such as Law no. 319/2006 (SSM Law), Government Decision no. 1091/2006 regarding the minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace, employers must keep in mind that employees cannot work under conditions that endanger their lives, physical and mental health. This is where human and professional dignity enters.
What does this decision of the Cluj Tribunal mean for employees?
“There is a legal precedent. If the job makes you clarify and you have medical evidence, you can go to court. Remember the number of the file judged by the Civil Section of the Cluj Tribunal: 2064/117/2022, it can be used as a reference for the legal precedent”Says Doru Șupere.
According to Hakingwork, it’s not just the employee’s fault. “You don’t have to feel weak or unadapped if the stress breaks you down. It is also the responsibility of the employer to ensure a healthy work environment and managers to intervene when things get out of control ”is the expert HR.
You can ask for changes. If you work in a place where pressure and chaos are the norm, you can insist on clear policies to protect the employees. Make sure you ask them in writing, to have evidence, the source shows.
For companies and managers this means, says a whisper: “Don’t squeeze the energy employees anymore as lemons. Treat them the same as you would like to be treated at work. Allocate resources and employees sufficient people for the volume of work to be managed effectively. Think clearer and more concrete ways to protect people’s mental health. After all, a happy and reconciled employee with the conditions of work means a productive employee. ”
Otherwise, look, employees could ask for rights in court. And if a giant like Betfair, probably with an army of lawyers available, was paid, what chances does a small or medium-sized company have its overwhelming company and takes their employees to exhaustion?
“In conclusion, the decision of the Cluj Tribunal is not only a personal victory of the employee who had the courage to ask for his rights, but also an alarm signal for all the employers in Romania. The burnout can no longer be treated as a “sensitivity”, and the companies that squeeze their employees until they are exhausted will begin to pay-on their own “, concludes a hat.
Employees now have a powerful weapon: the legal precedent. This means that every employee overloads can ask for decent working conditions, without the fear that “it is everywhere” or that “you have to endure”.
