The doorman of a building in Punta del Este won a trial and must be paid more than $85,000 for overtime work

A court in Uruguay condemned the co-owners of a tower in Punta del Este to pay their former goalkeeper a total of 5,634 hours of overtime in the amount of 3,670,127 Uruguayan pesos, more than 85,000 US dollars.

It is estimated that this amount will increase to values close to five million pesos, more than 116,000 dollars, following the mandatory adjustment by law, following any judicial ruling. That is, once the court's ruling becomes final, the amount to be paid could increase to that figure.

The 4th shift Labor Appeals Court overturned, on February 23, 2022, a first ruling made by Maldonado's 9th-shift legal judge Diego Prieto. He had dismissed the lawsuit of goalkeeper Sergio Daniel Pizzarro Cardoso for his overtime in the Torres del Plata II building, in the Punta del Este neighborhood known as “La Punta”, local media outlet Correo de Punta said.

The doorman stated that the magistrate of the first instance did not make a correct assessment of the evidence because he rejected the various items of the lawsuit, such as overtime, incidents in the calculation of the leave, vacation salary and bonus.

The co-owners of the building were then ordered to pay the overtime and other accessories mentioned by the plaintiff. In the opinion of the Ministers of the Tribunal, it was “reliably proved” that the doorman had his working hours fixed from 6 am to 2 pm.

For that reason, all tasks performed beyond that working time were considered overtime. “On the other hand, the monthly attendance forms are added to these performances, which were prepared, informed and subscribed by the actor. In turn, the concepts actually paid by the respondent were in accordance with what was reported in these forms,” said the ministers.

“In this sense, the test completed in cars is conclusive in that the actor carried out a longer schedule at 8 hours stipulated and informed by the actor himself in the forms. In particular, not only do those who regularly performed tasks in the Building report seeing the actor work beyond 14 hours, but those who were and still are his co-workers confirm the above,” adds the ruling.

The court took into account the testimonies of other workers in the building and several service providers who claimed to have seen the doorman beyond the stipulated working hours, while still performing work duties.

At the time of the lawsuit, the goalkeeper received a total salary of 224 Uruguayan pesos per hour, five US dollars. This indicates that, if the real value had been put on their hours worked, it would be 448 pesos, ten US dollars.

The judgment in the second instance of the Court was appealed in cassation by the owners of the building, so that the Supreme Court of Justice will now have the final say in this regard.

In addition, there is another lawsuit pending as the doorman was fired by the owners during the overtime process which will also be tried by the Supreme Court in the same judicial instance.

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