Bank manager earning over $7,500 a month fired for using work hours for personal care
The employee, who had worked for the bank since 1999, accumulated more than thirteen hours of unjustified absences between November 2023 and February 2024.
The High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) has upheld the dismissal of a CaixaBank branch manager in northern Spain, after the bank fired her for repeatedly being absent from work without justification — even closing the branch early on some occasions to go to the hairdresser during her working hours.
To avoid detection, the employee sometimes manipulated her time records, indicating that she had completed her workday when she had not.
Employed by CaixaBank since 1999 and earning a salary of €7,345, she was dismissed on April 8, 2024, after an internal review uncovered multiple unjustified absences between November 2023 and February 2024. According to the court ruling, there were irregularities on up to fifteen days, totaling more than thirteen hours of unexcused absences.
One of the incidents cited occurred on January 3, 2024, when the manager closed the branch two hours early to visit a hair salon, where she remained from 1:11 p.m. to 3:09 p.m., according to her dismissal letter. The premature closure left several customers waiting outside, which the court found to have caused “serious harm to the proper functioning of the workplace.”
Despite these findings, the employee appealed her dismissal to the TSJPV (High Court of Justice of the Basque Government), but the appeal was rejected. The court ruled that the dismissal was “proportionate to the seriousness of the conduct,” citing “repeated and significant punctuality issues” and a “breach of good faith in the employment relationship.”
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The decision, issued on July 22, 2025, can still be appealed before the Supreme Court.
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