A McDonald's restaurant in the Dutch town of Lemmer was wrong to fire a worker who gave a colleague a free slice of cheese, a court has found.

The worker had been preparing a hamburger meal for a colleague on a break, when the colleague then asked for cheese on the burger. McDonald's argued that because the addition of cheese created another, more expensive menu item, the worker should have been charged more, and the cheese slice thus broke a company rule to not give free gifts to family, friends or colleague.

However, the court in Leeuwarden in the north of Holland ruled that the punishment was too severe and that a written warning would have been more appropriate.

"It is just a slice of cheese," said the court in a written statement.

McDonald's was ordered to pay the worker the salary for the remaining five months of her contract, which came to 4,265.47 Euros ($6,006.69).