Lottery shop in Paraíba state is condemned after firing employee who fell victim to a WhatsApp scam.

A lottery shop was ordered to reverse a dismissal for just cause to one without just cause and pay severance pay, in addition to compensating a former employee with R$ 13 who was the victim of a WhatsApp scam, which caused a loss of more than R$ 2 to the establishment. The decision was made by the 2nd Panel of the Regional Labor Court of the 13th Region, published on August 2, which G1 had access to this Thursday (8).

The initial decision was issued by Judge Maria Liian Leal de Souza, of the 6th Labor Court of Campina Grande, on April 9th; however, both parties appealed.

In the ruling, the judge ordered the lottery agency to pay severance pay, the second installment of the 13th salary for 2018, vacation pay for 2017/2018 plus 1/3, proportional vacation pay (7/12 within the limits of the request) plus 1/3, FGTS (Brazilian severance fund) plus 40% for the entire employment contract.

The judge also ordered that the former employee's hiring date be corrected in her work record – given that she reported having worked illegally at the location from May to November 2017.

According to the analysis of the reporting judge, Edvaldo de Andrade, the former employee reported that another employee of the lottery shop received a call and, not knowing how to provide the necessary information, passed the call on to the victim.

According to the court ruling, during the call, a woman stated that there was an outstanding issue regarding the payment of a bill, but that she could not go to the establishment to resolve the situation. Therefore, she asked for the former employee's email and phone number to exchange information.

However, less than an hour later, a man began messaging the then-employee, posing as the owner of the lottery shop and asking her to make deposits. The woman even asked for an audio recording and for the man to call to confirm his identity.

The documents include a statement in which the victim recounts that the profile picture of the contact sending the messages was of the company owner and that the number had the same area code as the one he used.

When the business owner was asked how the transfers should be recorded on the cash register sheet, he stated that he had not requested any deposit and that it had been a scam. The loss, as indicated in the court documents, amounted to R$ 13.528,19.

After that, the employee was dismissed for just cause by the lottery agency. However, the judge stated that, for this to be done, "impropriety" must be established, along with bad faith or malice.

In this case, the judge stated that both the police investigation and the case file indicate that the woman did not participate in the fraud, nor did she intend to harm the company. Therefore, the dismissal for just cause was reversed to dismissal without just cause.

Regarding the claim for moral damages, the lottery agency filed an appeal, arguing that the former employee failed to prove she suffered any harm caused by the company that would justify the request.

The judge, however, understood that the dismissal for just cause, without grounds, caused moral damage to the plaintiff. He pointed out that her subjective honor, that is, her self-image, and her objective honor, her reputation in the social environment, were violated. The victim, in turn, filed an appeal against the initial decision and requested an increase in the amount of compensation, which was denied.

Furthermore, the former employee stated in the lawsuit that, although she was hired in May 2017, her employment record was only signed in November of the same year. Therefore, she requested recognition of this period, correction of her employment record, and payment of social security contributions and FGTS (Brazilian severance fund) deposits, which was granted by the judge in Campina Grande.

Lawyer Luiz Phillipe Pinto, representing the dismissed employee, emphasized that "the evidence presented proves the total absence of any intention on the part of the employee to obtain an advantage for herself or for third parties. There is not the slightest trace in the records that the plaintiff actively participated in the fraud suffered by the lottery agency, that she benefited in any way from the deposits made, that she even knew the perpetrators of the crime, or that she sought to favor them," he said.

The lottery agency also appealed this decision, arguing that there was no evidence in the case file to support the former employee's claim, but the judge stated that testimonies and photos prove that she was already working at the location during the indicated period. ( G1 Paraíba )