A civil servant from North Rhine-Westphalia is notorious for being late for work. In total – in four years – he came later than the appointed time, a total of 816 times. However, according to the court decision, he cannot be fired. However, it seems that all these administrative procedures did not make a good impression on the official.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has issued a far-reaching decision in the case of a civil servant from North Rhine-Westphalia: he cannot be dismissed even if he is regularly late for work, reports the agency of AFP press.
1614 hours late
The official in question is a senior government adviser to the Federal Financial Conduct Authority (BaFin). He is famous for the fact that with enviable regularity he ignores compliance with the main schedule of work established by the employer. In four years, he was late for work 816 times, for a total of 1,614 hours, according to AFP. In this regard, the Federal Agency initiated disciplinary proceedings against this official and filed a disciplinary action with the Düsseldorf Administrative Court, which ordered the dismissal of the offender from his duties.
An appeal against this decision was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court on the grounds that intentional absence from work on working days is equivalent to absenteeism for several months, which should therefore lead to maximum measures.
Retrograde
However, the Federal Administrative Court has now overturned that decision and other lower court rulings, ruling that the violation was serious but cannot be equated to months of unauthorized absenteeism. Instead, more lenient disciplinary measures, such as pay cuts, should be applied. (Case No. BVerwG 2 C 20.21) Instead of completely withdrawing a person from the civil service, the Federal Administrative Court simply downgraded him to the rank of member of the government council.
However, all these moves did not make a big impression on the official. According to AFP, he not only continued to be late after the initiation of the disciplinary procedure, but even increased his absences in the morning.
