WILLEMSTAD - The Joint Court of Justice has upheld the immediate dismissal of a head chef at a restaurant in Nieuw Nederland after he was found to have inappropriately groped a female kitchen employee.

The incident, which the court ruled involved the chef grabbing the woman’s genitals without consent, provided grounds for termination with immediate effect. The chef, who had been employed at the restaurant since 2015, denied the allegations in his appeal and requested annulment of his dismissal along with continued salary payments.

The restaurant presented evidence that included camera footage of the incident, complete with sound. Although the recordings were automatically deleted from the cloud in late 2023, written statements from the restaurant’s director and manager — both of whom had viewed the footage — were submitted to the court. In addition, a video statement from the victim, accompanied by a transcript, was provided.

The judges determined that the statements were detailed, consistent, and credible. They also noted that the chef had not explicitly denied the incident during earlier stages of the proceedings. At one point, he admitted to having “grabbed the colleague in her crotch,” and on another occasion, he answered “yes” when confronted with the accusation. His later attempts to retract those admissions were deemed unconvincing.

The court concluded that grabbing a colleague by her genitals against her will constitutes an urgent and compelling reason for immediate dismissal. The fact that the incident had occurred six months earlier did not lessen its seriousness, the judges ruled.

As a result, the chef remains dismissed and has been ordered to pay the legal costs of the appeal.