The High Court of Justice of Andalusia declared on April 30, 2026, that the dismissal of an Almeria hospital waiter was unfair after he lost 4,100 euros in a phone scam. The worker transferred 1,150 euros from his employer's cash register and 2,950 euros of his own savings to fraudsters impersonating his supervisor.
The incident occurred on Oct. 2, 2023, while the employee was working at a hospital cafeteria in Almeria, where he had been employed since December 2016. He received a call from an individual pretending to be his boss, who ordered him to go to a Correos post office to deposit money into Google Play cards.
Believing he was carrying out a genuine instruction, the waiter took 1,150 euros from the register and emptied his personal account of 2,950 euros. After completing the deposits, he telephoned his supervisor to confirm that everything was in order, only to learn that no such request had been made.
That same afternoon, the employee reported the crime to the National Police station in Almeria. He also offered to repair the financial loss to the company both prior to his firing and during a conciliation attempt in November 2023.
Compensation and financial damages
Twenty days after the phone scam, the catering company served the waiter with a dismissal letter without conducting a prior hearing. The business accused him of job abandonment as well as fraud, disloyalty, or breach of trust under the hospitality sector's collective agreement.
In ruling 1081/2026, also recorded as STSJ AND 6557/2026, the Social Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Andalusia in Granada upheld the ruling of unfair dismissal. The court ordered the firm to either reinstate the waiter or pay him 12,117.86 euros in compensation, deducting any severance already paid.
The employer lost its appeal deposit and was ordered to pay 450 euros in court costs. Justices noted that while the company lost 1,150 euros, the worker suffered a harder blow because his personal loss of 2,950 euros equaled nearly two months of his monthly wage of 1,614.83 euros.
Court arguments and legal reasoning
The tribunal acknowledged that the waiter acted negligently during the incident. With nearly seven years of experience, he should have suspected a prepaid card transaction outside the cafeteria's standard procedure of settling accounts through weekly bank transfers.
However, the court identified multiple mitigating circumstances. The scammer used the real name of the waiter's supervisor, which gave credibility to the command and convinced the worker he was following legitimate orders.
Judges highlighted that the waiter contributed personal funds equal to nearly double his monthly salary, demonstrating good faith rather than dishonesty. The ruling stated that not only was there no fraud, disloyalty, or breach of trust, but there was also no intention to disobey any order.
The court also emphasized his position as a waiter rather than a finance manager, noting there was no proof he had received training on responding to telephone money requests. Calling the scam deliberately and maliciously induced by third parties, the ruling concluded that while his negligence was punishable, it did not warrant the severe penalty of dismissal under labor law.
