Maltese Court Orders Pharmaceutical Company To Pay €14,000 To Man Who Was Sacked While Suffering From Depression
A court has ruled that a pharmaceutical company – Actavis Limited – must pay €14,000 in compensation to a worker who was sacked while suffering from depression.
The man, who used to work as a technical assistant within the company, was known to suffer from depression as a result of a series of recent deaths within the family.
Among those lost were his sister and cousin, both of whom had died of cancer.
The court heard that his sacking came as a shock after nobody within the company had even alluded to it earlier. But having received a termination by post in such an abrupt way only served to worsen the state of his mental health.
The man indeed stated that he was asked to take sick leave for such instances, but couldn’t do so because “he wasn’t thinking straight”.
In its defense, the company insisted that their employee was given permission not to report for work for a couple of months, but even so, he had still not returned. Following his absence, they tried to contact him via several platforms but the employee failed to respond.
The court ruled that despite the obvious frailty of the man in question, he was still loyal to the company. And in conclusion, he had no misgivings save an absence of some days from work.
The man, whose name cannot be published by court order, was represented by lawyer Francesca Zarb, while the company was represented by lawyer Lara Pace.
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