Romanian court rules Kaufland needs to pay moral damages to former employee

German retailer Kaufland will have to pay moral damages worth RON 100,000 (EUR 21,000) to a former employee for traumas suffered as a result of a work accident, local Adevarul reported. The Court of Appeal in Timisoara announced the final decision in this case last week.

A former cashier sued Kaufland in 2017, asking for moral damages worth RON 300,000 (some EUR 63,000).

The cashier was working at one of the cash registers on the evening of November 22, 2013 and, because there were no clients at that time, she was asked to take another task: put the returned goods back on the shelves. She was on a ladder arranging some products when one of her colleagues hit the ladder with the electric pallet truck, moving it just enough to unbalance the cashier, who fell and suffered a fracture at the right leg’s heel bone.

The cashier returned to work after a medical leave of six months. She was still in pain so she asked her employers to give her tasks that don’t require standing. “However, after four hours of work without lying in a horizontal position, the right leg swells, generating an accentuated state of pain,” the former employee said in her complaint, according to Adevarul.

The cashier also said that she kept consulting several doctors in the recovery period and, in December 2016, she was subjected to a new surgery. Because the pain persisted, the woman opened the lawsuit in 2017, urging the court to order Kaufland to pay moral damages of RON 300,000.

The Arad Tribunal was the first to rule a sentence in this case, partly admitting the former employee’s request and obliging Kaufland to pay moral damages of RON 100,000. The decision was appealed but was maintained by the Timisoara Court of Appeal.

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