An employee of the Kohberg industrial bakery in southern Jutland smelled sweat so badly that he was fired, writes the Danish Fagbladet3f.

Now he has won a compensation lawsuit against his former employer.

He worked for Denmark’s largest bakery for twelve years before the smell of sweat became too bad for his colleagues and the boss, writes the trade magazine.

The problems started in the fall of 2021, when he moved from working as a night watchman to working more closely with his daytime colleagues.

The dismissed man explained to the Danish redundancy board that he did everything he could to maintain hygiene by changing his work clothes and showering before each shift, but especially in the summer he was doing warm inside the bakery.

The dismissal came in August 2022, after he first received a verbal warning and two written warnings from the boss.

“Unfortunately, I have to send you home for poor hygiene/strong smell of sweat, which is very disturbing to your colleagues in the service,” the boss reportedly wrote in the first warning.

Kohberg Bakery Group chief executive Rene Normann Christensen told Fagbladet3f that the dismissal related to food safety.

– Kohberg is a responsible food company, and in order to guarantee the quality of our bread, we have very high and unwavering hygiene standards in all our bakeries.

However, the court held that the dismissal letter did not refer to hygiene, but referred to the strong smell of sweat. They therefore awarded the dismissed person NOK 85,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal.