A worker decided to leave his job after receiving a payment 330 times higher than his usual salary. Following a court battle, he successfully retained the money.
Employed at the Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos de Chile, the employee mistakenly received 165 million Chilean pesos (£126,860) instead of his standard 500,000 pesos (£385) in May 2022 due to a company error. Despite the firm’s request for him to return the funds, claiming he had agreed to do so during a meeting with HR, the worker resigned three days later without reimbursing the amount. Consequently, the company accused him of theft, leading to a three-year legal dispute.
If found guilty of theft, the worker could have faced fines or a potential jail term of up to 540 days. However, in September, judges in Santiago dismissed the case, determining that it was an “unauthorized collection” rather than theft.
As the court ruled it was not theft, the matter could not be prosecuted further, as per Diario Financiero. Nevertheless, the company expressed its intention to appeal the decision in pursuit of recovering the money.
In a related incident, a teacher in Germany went on extended sick leave for 16 years, receiving her full salary of £48,000 annually without the school’s awareness. Suffering from chronic illness and psychological issues, she was supposed to undergo medical assessment after a three-month absence, which never transpired, leading to her continuous sick leave renewal for almost two decades.
The teacher reportedly earned between €5,051 (£4,369) and €6,174 (£5,341) monthly. The oversight persisted until a change in management in 2024 prompted an internal audit that unveiled the prolonged error.
Dorothee Feller, the education minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, expressed astonishment at the case and announced plans for a health evaluation of the teacher.