Bangkok employee sacked for “sleeping” at work when he actually fainted

A Bangkok sales assistant has been fired after fainting on the job. A colleague sent a photo of him unconscious to his boss, Thai media reported this week. The boss believed the employee had been sleeping on the job and sacked him.

The man who fainted, 22 year old Srithanalert, worked as a sales assistant in a furniture shop. He says he suffers from insomnia. On August 21, the day of the incident, Srithanalert revealed he hadn’t eaten and had been working continuously at cutting a carpet. At around 11am, he told his colleagues he was going to sit down in the space between two beds. Then he fainted there.

Srithanalert’s manager woke him up three to four times and gave him a warning. Srithanalert tried to explain that he had fainted but his boss just told him not to do it again. Srithanalert then continued to work until 5pm as usual. That night, one of his colleagues called and told him that he had been fired.

Srithanalert later learned that another employee had sent photos of him passed out to his boss. After Srithanalert confronted the employee that took the photo, she said it was not her job to know about the health-related reasons why Srithanalert passed out. She said she sent the photo to their boss after customers had complained about Srithanalert being asleep on the job. Srithanalert is now meeting with a lawyer to try to sue his former colleague.

Srithanalert said he was shocked about getting fired after only being given one warning because his company’s regulations say that three warnings must be given before workers are punished.

SOURCE: Khaosod