Employee sacked for surfing Facebook while sick

An insurance worker in Switzerland has lost her job after surfing on social networking website Facebook from home while taking time off work for an illness.

The woman said that she could not work in front of a computer as she needed to be resting on a bed, but was then noticed on Facebook by an employer.

National Suisse, the woman's employer, said that the action of the woman broke down the relationships of trust between the two.

"This abuse of trust, rather than the activity on Facebook, led to the ending of the work contract," the company said. 

The woman has told the 20 Minuten program in her native country that she had been surfing Facebook while on her iPhone, and that her employer had been spying on her. But National Suisse has rejected the spying claim, saying that her Facebook profile had been found by a colleague in November.