Any business could potentially become a victim of robbery or theft. The approach to this crime, though, becomes even more complex if it has been committed by someone from the inside, an employee. In this case, the legal implications are from the criminal and labor type, and it is important to know what measures should be taken to action in order to protect the business interests, without violating the worker's rights.
It is important to acknowledge the difference between theft and robbery in the first place. In both cases a person takes possession of objects or money (movable assets) owned by someone else, with the purpose of obtaining a benefit; However, while the robbery implies a certain use of violence or force from one person to the other, in a theft, the person committing the crime takes the property through ways that allows them to pass unnoticed. Despite this, in the Salvadorian legislation, theft may include a violence or harm inflicted on an object, for example, breaking a window to enter a place, or even snatching the object from the arms of another person. In the workplace the theft crime occurs more often than robbery, for these people would not want to expose themselves and lose their job.
With that being said, as in every crime, it is essential to lodge a formal complaint to the police so they can open an investigation that helps them determine if the person responsible for the crime is the employee or someone else. The important aspect of this first step is that, according to the Salvadoran Work Code. If an employee is responsible for the crime and is placed in custody or goes to prison for the committed crime, it allows the employer to fire him without any obligation of compensation. This is why it is quite essential to request the legal assistance since the very beginning, for your lawyers are the ones that could guide you in the right direction towards the actions that need to be done (eg ways to cooperate with the investigation) or that need to be avoided (eg things that could violate the worker's rights).
But, what if the employer does not want to report the employee? In this case, since the criminal and labor matters operate independently, the employer can fire the worker if trust has been broken; the difference is there will be a need of compensation, depending on the details of the case and its evidence. Either way, the employer must support the termination of the contract for, if the employee believes they have been fired unjustifiably, they may go to the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance (Ministerio de Trabajo y Prevención Social) to place a denunciation, and, If they won't settle, they might go into a judicial process to prove that the dismissal took place without liability on the part of the employer.
In conclusion, every case is different, sometimes we might not even be talking about robbery or theft, but also any other crime such as fraud or fraudulent administration, where an investigation always comes handy. On the other side, on some occasions, there may be a lacking of conviction that a crime has been committed. However, once the trust is broken, there will be many labor consequences, and so, it is really important to count on highly-qualified legal team, such as the one at LatinAlliance, where we can provide the legal assistance you require.