Reported in Italy for using a company car to get home
A worker says he was owed €1,732 and ended up being reported in Italy for using a company car to get home. Without a lawyer or interpreter.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Reported in Italy after using a company car to get home
According to his own account, he took the company car, drove to the bus station in a city in Apulia, and there two Carabinieri cars swooped in on him. One from behind, another coming the wrong way. They asked him whose vehicle it was. His bosses arrived shouting that it was a theft. The worker ended up facing a complaint for misappropriation, without a lawyer or an interpreter, and with the warning, he says, that he would not leave the country.
Behind the scene is a labour dispute that spiralled out of control: a €1,732 salary payment that the employee claims was stolen from him, a village of 300 inhabitants in an isolated mountain area, four months of international travel, a disciplinary dismissal and a legal claim that has still not been filed.
Was taking the company car misappropriation?
The employee is clear: the only way to get down from that lost village to the city where he lived, and from there to the airport, was the vehicle the company had assigned to him. He did not hide it, sell it or destroy it. He used it, told his managers and continued on his way. The company still reported him for misappropriation, and even asked him for his work keys and tools before lodging the complaint.
In the thread itself, some argue that using an assigned vehicle to get around, with no intention of keeping it, fits poorly with the description of the offence. Against that, other participants warn, weighs a practical factor: if the accused is not in the country when the trial is held, he will be tried in absentia and his defence will be badly weakened.
The aggrieved worker says he will ask to appear by videoconference, demand an interpreter and bring a lawyer. He maintains that the route is legal; the cost, however, is something he has not resolved. The alternative some suggest — calling a taxi, paying a neighbour to give you a lift — clashes with a figure he keeps repeating: the company owed him nearly two thousand euros.
The 27 hours of travel that nobody paid for
The account goes beyond the complaint. The contract was Monday to Friday; according to his version, he was forced to work Saturdays and public holidays. He was left unable to enjoy Holy Week even though he had requested the holiday in advance. And he had accumulated journeys of 27, 25, 24 and 22 hours across several countries without being paid the travel overtime.
The list of grievances he describes — sleeping in a bed placed in the kitchen of a rented house, delayed payments — paints, according to his version, a situation of forced mobility and late wages.
No lawyer, no interpreter and with the boss dictating the complaint
The police episode adds another layer. According to his testimony, he had no duty lawyer or interpreter at the police station. His boss spoke in Italian to the officer, and the officer wrote down what the boss said. Then came the patrol car and a back area he described as suffocating, with the thermometer climbing in the mid-afternoon.
The company, according to his account, is Spanish, and so are the bosses, which rules out the easy take of “the Italians”. The culture shock appears in other posts, which compare life in southern Italy with life in Spain in terms of transport, prices or safety, almost always in terms of personal frustration rather than analysis.
The return and the claim that remains open
The worker arrived in Spain with a 20-kilo suitcase, a backpack, no hotel booked and a disciplinary dismissal notified in the mid-afternoon the previous day. He is now looking for a lawyer to claim the money he is owed and to report the irregularities he attributes to the company. He asks how much a good employment lawyer costs. No one has yet given him a figure.
The matter remains where it was: a complaint for misappropriation in Italy, a dismissal in Spain and an assessment of damages that only a court can determine. The question hanging over the whole story has no simple answer: if the company owed him €1,732, who broke the law first?
According to his own account, he took the company car, drove to the bus station in a city in Apulia, and there two Carabinieri cars swooped in on him. One from behind, another coming the wrong way. They asked him whose vehicle it was. His bosses arrived shouting that it was a theft. The worker ended up facing a complaint for misappropriation, without a lawyer or an interpreter, and with the warning, he says, that he would not leave the country.
Behind the scene is a labour dispute that spiralled out of control: a €1,732 salary payment that the employee claims was stolen from him, a village of 300 inhabitants in an isolated mountain area, four months of international travel, a disciplinary dismissal and a legal claim that has still not been filed.
Was taking the company car misappropriation?
The employee is clear: the only way to get down from that lost village to the city where he lived, and from there to the airport, was the vehicle the company had assigned to him. He did not hide it, sell it or destroy it. He used it, told his managers and continued on his way. The company still reported him for misappropriation, and even asked him for his work keys and tools before lodging the complaint.
In the thread itself, some argue that using an assigned vehicle to get around, with no intention of keeping it, fits poorly with the description of the offence. Against that, other participants warn, weighs a practical factor: if the accused is not in the country when the trial is held, he will be tried in absentia and his defence will be badly weakened.
The aggrieved worker says he will ask to appear by videoconference, demand an interpreter and bring a lawyer. He maintains that the route is legal; the cost, however, is something he has not resolved. The alternative some suggest — calling a taxi, paying a neighbour to give you a lift — clashes with a figure he keeps repeating: the company owed him nearly two thousand euros.
The 27 hours of travel that nobody paid for
The account goes beyond the complaint. The contract was Monday to Friday; according to his version, he was forced to work Saturdays and public holidays. He was left unable to enjoy Holy Week even though he had requested the holiday in advance. And he had accumulated journeys of 27, 25, 24 and 22 hours across several countries without being paid the travel overtime.
The list of grievances he describes — sleeping in a bed placed in the kitchen of a rented house, delayed payments — paints, according to his version, a situation of forced mobility and late wages.
No lawyer, no interpreter and with the boss dictating the complaint
The police episode adds another layer. According to his testimony, he had no duty lawyer or interpreter at the police station. His boss spoke in Italian to the officer, and the officer wrote down what the boss said. Then came the patrol car and a back area he described as suffocating, with the thermometer climbing in the mid-afternoon.
The company, according to his account, is Spanish, and so are the bosses, which rules out the easy take of “the Italians”. The culture shock appears in other posts, which compare life in southern Italy with life in Spain in terms of transport, prices or safety, almost always in terms of personal frustration rather than analysis.
The return and the claim that remains open
The worker arrived in Spain with a 20-kilo suitcase, a backpack, no hotel booked and a disciplinary dismissal notified in the mid-afternoon the previous day. He is now looking for a lawyer to claim the money he is owed and to report the irregularities he attributes to the company. He asks how much a good employment lawyer costs. No one has yet given him a figure.
The matter remains where it was: a complaint for misappropriation in Italy, a dismissal in Spain and an assessment of damages that only a court can determine. The question hanging over the whole story has no simple answer: if the company owed him €1,732, who broke the law first?
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (196 replies).
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