Man Gets Over N180m After Suing His Former Boss Who Fired Him Over Birthday Party in 2019

• A man was in 2019 fired by his employer on grounds that he was angry because he developed a panic attack during his birthday party organised by his company
• Kevin Berling had initially told his employer that birthday parties trigger bad childhood memories for him but his request was forgotten
• He sued his employer months after they fired him via an email and a jury that heard his case last month awarded him KSh 52 million (N186,776,428.38) for compensation

A man in the US has been awarded KSh 52 million (N186,776,428.38) for wrongfully being fired by his employer who threw him a birthday party contrary to his wishes.

Man compensated for losing job over birthday party

Kevin Berling who lives in Kentucky State sued his employer for disability discrimination, claiming he was fired 10 months into his job over a birthday party that went wrong.

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According to TMZ, Berling in his suit claimed he told his office manager not to throw him a birthday party because he suffers from an anxiety disorder and that such kind of celebration would trigger bad childhood memories of his parents' divorce.

However, his employer, Gravity Diagnostics, downplayed his request and ended up throwing him a grand birthday party on August 7, 2019, which resulted in him having a panic attack.

How he was sacked

He was also forced to spend his lunch hour in his car to deal with the aftereffect of the party that was in his honour.

Berling further claimed that he was called into a meeting with company brass the next day, which he says triggered another panic attack and added that three days later he was fired via email.

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According to him, the company claimed they were worried about him being angry and possibly violent.

He however sued the company a few months after they fired him and his two-day trial happened in March. A Kentucky jury awarded him KSh 52 million (N186,776,428.38), which included KSh 35 million (N125,714,903.72) for the emotional distress he went through and KSh 17 million (N61,061,524.66) for his lost wages.

The company's advocate has however said it will appeal the verdict.

Nigerian men lose job for dancing at the workplace

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that two Nigerian men who just wanted to be happy and spice up their working hours with dancing to entertain customers were sacked for being 'unprofessional'.

A Twitter account with the handle @TheShoeGuy who revealed their sack on Twitter was angry that someone posted their dancing video online, an act which drew attention to them.

The video showed the two dancing to the You Want Bam Bam trending song. Many Nigerians who engaged the tweet wondered why their employer would take such an action.

Source: Legit.ng