France: Hostel employee fired for forcing pork on diners

France: Hostel employee fired for forcing pork on diners

An employee for a workers hostel in Clermont-Ferrand was fired for insistently trying to serve pork to the Tunisian residents.

On June 15th, the labor court of Clermont-Ferrand will try a difficult case.   A former employee of the Home Dôme hostel, which houses young workers, is challenging his dismissal  for serious misconduct.  He is blamed for having tried to insistently serve pork to Muslim Tunisian residents of the hospital during an evening shift on October 16th.

That same evening, when another foreign client came to the restaurant, she publicly told the staff in front of the client that they are her witness that he'll eat pork.

As a result,  the Home Dôme hostel management found that this employee violated the honor and consideration due to the residents and behaved in a discriminatory fashion.

A version which is contested by the ex-employee.  Employed as a kitchen assistant, she was responsible for preparing the various dishes at lunchtime.  But on October 16, her colleagues demanded she serve the clients.  when the Tunisian trainees arrived, there were already many people, and another employee was just then busy preparing pizzas for them, explains Roesch, the plaintiff's lawyer.  The employee, who masters Arabic, talked with the Tunisians.  Then, at the same time, and in French, turned to the plaintiff and asked her to serve them two plates of fries.  The trainees said they do not wish to be served by the plaintiff, who already returned to the kitchen.  She never served them pork, and never proposed to do so.

But the Tunisian trainees say the plaintiff got it into her head to serve them pork, and adopted an aggressive tone.  Nine depositions have been taken in this vein.

According to Roesch, the reasons for the dismissal are different.  The lawyer says that besides the fact that the alleged grounds pose social-cultural problems which are difficult for our Western societies to manage, it appears that the dismissal results from other considerations, notably economic ones.  In effect, the service restaurant of the hostel is not the best and was suffering declining sales.

The hostel lawyer did not wish to comment before the court decision.

Source: Modergnat (French), h/t le blog laiciste

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