It is of course untrue that hard work never hurt anyone – but in Spain it seems, hard work can also get you sacked.
It has been reported that a manager was dismissed by a Spanish branch of Lidl for consistently arriving at work several hours early to prepare the store for opening.
This contravened the company’s policy that employees should not work any unpaid overtime. It seems, however, that he had been coming in early for something like 12 years before his dismissal, which suggests that the policy was one that the company did not enforce too rigorously - and his legal challenge is on-going.
Of course, no one wants their employees to work so hard that their health is at risk, but it is difficult to imagine many British employers taking such a strong objection to an employee volunteering to work additional hours for free.
