Facts
On February 11, 2002, X., a manager at bank Y., was dismissed with immediate effect by his employer. After legal proceedings, the unjustified nature of the dismissal was recognized and the bank was ordered to pay its former employee damages representing his salary until June 30, 2003, as well as compensation equivalent to four months' salary.
X. then opened a new action, asking the bank Y. to pay him 843,815 francs in additional damages. He argued that his employer had infringed his personality rights by informing third parties of the reasons for his dismissal and by only providing him with a work certificate in October 2004 in an inappropriate and inaccurate form.
The Court of Appeal of the Labor Court of the Canton of Geneva dismissed X.'s claim. The Federal Tribunal confirmed this judgment.
Considerations
According to the Federal Tribunal, the provisions of Art. 337c CO exhaustively regulate, from a contractual perspective, the financial consequences of an unjustified immediate dismissal. The employee can only claim additional damages, such as lost earnings, if he demonstrates either an infringement of personality rights going beyond that inherent in the unjustified nature of the dismissal, or a breach by the employer of a contractual obligation other than that arising from Art. 328 CO.
In this…