Turkish court says boss 'weaponized' bathing vessel to assault an employee for not taking shower

SAMSUN

This file photo shows two aluminum vessels and a teapot

An employer has been fined by authorities in the northern Turkish province of Samsun for hitting an employee, who refused to take a shower, by using an aluminum vessel full of hot water.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Jan. 18 that the physical quarrel in an unidentified construction site was the last straw after the employer and the employee argued for months over why the latter refused to take a shower.

“He had promised me to come to work after taking a shower. When he failed to do so the following day, I asked him why he didn’t take a shower. He said that the water supply had been cut off. Then I showed him the aluminum vessel, which was sitting on a heater full of hot water,” the boss was quoted as saying in the court documents.

The worker reacted negatively to the employer’s suggestion and the argument soon turned physical. “A co-worker halted our fight. If he didn’t, I would have been killed,” the boss added, admitting that he did not know how the employee’s nose ended up bleeding.

The employee, on the other hand, told the court that his boss shouted at him “like he is shouting at a child” to order him to take a shower. “He took the aluminum vessel and hit my head with it repeatedly,” he added in his testimony confirmed by an eyewitness.

The court convicted the employer for willful injury by using an aluminum vessel, which it described as a weapon of assault.

The employer was fined 3,000 Turkish Liras.