THIERRY THE MARTINIQUAIS AND HIS «PANTIES»

Transcription

THIERRY
THE MARTINIQUAIS
AND HIS «PANTIES»...
or a restaurant chain’s difficulty in recognising a case
of homophobic harassment among its workmates
Release No. TR10SOC17
Paris, Thursday 9 / Thursday 16 September 2010
EN
_
I. AT THE BEGINNING OF JULY, DURING A WELCOME AND LISTENING SESSION,
WE MET A YOUNG MAN, WHOM WE SHALL CALL THIERRY, A HOMOSEXUAL
WITH ORIGINS IN MARTINIQUE. Working for a restaurant chain in north Paris
for several years, he was now having a problem with a workmate, whom we
shall call Benoît. Thierry recounted to us the following history.
“At the beginning of May, I was doing late shift one evening, at about
21:45hrs. Benoît just about set his station on, so we had to close the
restaurant early. I was doing the washing up and the deputy-in-charge [whom
we shall call Stéphanie] asked me to show Benoît how to clean his station after
I had finished washing up. However, he wanted me to help him, instead of just
showing him, without delay and before finishing the washing up. He came up
to me twice to ask me. I told him that I needed to finish the washing up first.
He came up to me to show me he was the man and said quite heatedly, in
front of two workmates: “Who do you think you are talking to? I’m no
faggot!” I replied: “Why are you speaking to me about my sexuality?”I went to
see Stéphanie, who said to me: “Don’t bother yourself about it, we shall see
about it later.” I went finally to help Benoît. There, he said to me, talking about
a pitcher of ice-cubes he needed to use to clean his cooking station: “You want
me to stuff this in your panties?” The whole restaurant was aware of this.
People said: “He ought not to have said that...” Two workmates present at the
time said that he had “a problem” and there was no adverse comment
concerning me.
“During May, I was on holiday, and on my return Stéphanie told me she could
not take note of my version of events because she had not been there when
the events had taken place. If she had to take a decision, she would “issue two
warnings” (that is, to me also). Ever since my return, things have worsened.
Benoît provokes me, threatens to hit me outside of work. He said this to a
TJENBÉ RÈD ! Association de lutte contre les homophobies, les racismes & le sida
Courriel : [email protected] | MSN : [email protected]
Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/tjenbered | Site Internet : http://www.tjenbered.fr/
Ligne d’écoute et d’information : +33 (0)6 10 55 63 60 (24h/24, répondeur à certaines heures)
Siège national : 113, boulevard Voltaire, 75011 Paris
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THIERRY THE MARTINIQUAIS AND HIS «PANTIES»...
(THIERRY LE MARTINIQUAIS ET SA «PETITE CULOTTE»...)
workmate while I was present. I was at the rotisserie, he was at the grill.
I understood...
“At the end of May, last week, there was a confrontation with Benoît but
Stéphanie trivialised the problem: “A bit of banter between workmates...” He
maintained I had sworn at him, that I had said: “Go fuck yourself!”, but this is
false.
“Yesterday, about six o’clock in the evening, he searched me out, he wanted to
hit me. He was looking for an excuse. For my part, I have broken all contact
with him, I do not speak to him, I do not say hello to him, I say nothing to him.
I was on the rotisserie from four to six. At six o’clock, I left my station; at six
o’clock he was coming on shift. We passed each other without saying
anything, no customer having made any special request. I went to the
changing room to get dressed, he arrived suddenly, saying in an angry tone:
“What’s this, Thierry? What’s this shit you have left, you have not put the
meat back in the container, the containers are empty, what’s this pile of shit,
go on, try to be smart, you’ll see, I am going to deal with you outside.” He said
these things in front of a workmate, and then he left. I had by the way, left all
the meats on the menu in the container, as the rules required. When I left he
was still at his station, he finished his work at 23:00hrs.”
_
_
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II. AT THE END OF JUNE, AT THE CLOSE OF A SECOND INTERVIEW WITH
TJENBÉ RÈD and after three letters sent by the association to the head office
of the restaurant chain, without mentioning his name, Thierry authorised us
to send a further letter to the head office, this time setting out all the
personal details of the case. In fact, during June, the head office had sent us a
copy of the Diversity Charter signed by the company in 2005, which included
the fight against homophobia as an explicit objective. This charter gave
confidence to us, as well as Thierry.
At the end of July, after delicate negotiations, marked notably by written
commitments by the head office, an interview took place between Thierry
and his manager. He found himself alone at that meeting, even though the
presence of an elected employees’ representative was one of the written
commitments of the head office. (The manager had come to search for him
while he was finishing the washing up and had asked him to follow him. He
followed, without knowing what it was about. They went to a table in the
restaurant, in the middle of the customers.) The interview dealt with the
comments endured by Thierry as well as his way of life, in regard to his...
sexual orientation. The manager let him understand that there would be no
point in lodging a complaint, since Benoît had left. He asked him what he
expected him to do, why he had done what he had done (why he had “gone
higher up” to the head office, what’s that going to achieve as, here,
“everything is going well, as we have Blacks, Indians, etc”). To which Thierry
replied: “I took this step because I say that no notice was taken of my
problem, it had been ignored. The problem is homophobia.” The manager let
him understand that there was no point, that he had other things to do.
Thierry tried to talk about Stéphanie’s behaviour, her indifference. The
manager let it be understood that she had “other things to do”.
Tjenbé Rèd expressed its surprise at this interview, held without the presence
of an elected employees’ representative, and a second interview finally took
place at the end of August between Thierry and the manager of his workplace,
in the presence of a staff representative belonging to the CFDT union
(Confédération française démocratique du travail). The manager was due to
meet them at 15:00hrs but it was 15:30 before he saw them. The manager
said the whole affair “is a closed issue” since the interview at the end of July.
He repeated that Benoît no longer had the right to set foot in the restaurant.
He advised Thierry once again not to lodge a complaint, this time stating that
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this would be dangerous for him, that it would “re-activate” Benoît’s threats.
(The latter had been seen twice recently in the restaurant, despite assurances
to Thierry from head office that he would never set foot there again.) He
declared: “What happens outside the restaurant is not my business. As for me,
if I were you, I would not lodge a complaint, for that could entail some
aggression. Me, I am big, if that happened to me, I could manage all on my
own. If it happened to me, I am assuming!” He declared that there would be
no “positive discrimination” (meaning, no compensation) following the
homophobic comments and threats suffered by Thierry.
Does this last interview sort matters out? Thierry’s managers still do not
recognise their prejudice. We have meanwhile advised Thierry to lodge a
complaint for homophobic comments and threats, as well as, possibly, moral
harassment and the lack of assistance to a person in danger. (He should do so
the more because his version of the events that took place at the beginning of
June has been supported by a written affirmation provided by a workmate.)
_
III. ACCORDING TO THE THIERRY’S ELECTED EMPLOYEES’ REPRESENTATIVE,
“the management ought to have reacted on the day it happened”. Indeed.
This is not the only malfunction you could note in this story. The management
of the restaurant first misunderstood the harassment he suffered, and then
minimised it. When it had to recognise it, under the joint pressure of the CFDT
and Tjenbé Rèd, it misunderstood its own responsibility in the unpunished
harassment which Thierry had suffered between the beginning of May and
beginning of June. It refused to recognise the prejudice suffered by Thierry
due to its inaction during this period, and in consequence, did not see its duty
to sort out this prejudice one way or another. It tried to go back on assurances
provided by head office in meeting Thierry without the presence of an elected
employees’ representative and by dissuading him from lodging a complaint. It
laid part of the responsibility for the harassment he had suffered on Thierry,
by bringing his sexual orientation into the question. It seemed to wash its
hands of whatever might happen to him outside the workplace. Now it tries to
get out of things by asking the elected employees’ representative to “sort out
the problem” along with others of a similar nature that might occur in the
future.
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The attitude of the restaurant chain’s head office might also be questioned.
After showing a capacity for listening which was no doubt exemplary, after
having committed itself in writing, it did not immediately see to it that these
commitments were carried out, it supported the attitude of the management,
it did not follow up on our request to a direct dialogue with this management.
However, such a dialogue has finally been established today, by an almost
accidental meeting with the elected employees’ representative, and it looks
as if it might lead to a better understanding and to eliminate some
ambiguities. Was it perhaps possible to freely concede something that was no
longer demanded in writing? To discuss freely while the issue could have been
presented as decided?
For the moment, however, the employee remains in a situation in which his
company may not positively aggravate the harassment of which he was the
victim, but where it has not recognised it in full. Having given an assurance
that the harasser would be kept away from the victim, it left it at that. This is
better than silence or active complicity, but you could ask yourself whether
there is still in that a sort of refusal to see. This, if it does maybe not reveal
passive complicity, it is not in any way up to the level you could expect of a
large group which has signed a charter of diversity.
This is why Tjenbé Rèd will seek, together with the management, its head
office and the CFDT, possible routes to a better recognition by this enterprise
of the prejudice suffered by its employee, because of its silence, between May
and June 2010. More broadly, we seek possible ways towards a real
recognition of the moral duty of support which should motivate it whenever
one or other of its employees is the victim of a problem happening in the
place of work.
We shall keep the public informed of further developments in this case. We
hereby thank the CFDT, Autre cercle and Ravad for their supportive
accompaniment, in particular Madame Catherine TRIPON, spokesperson and
administrator of Autre cercle - a national federation and a member of the
committee of Halde (French High Authority for the struggle against all forms
of discrimination, and for equality) as well as Maître Jean-Bernard GEOFFROY,
chair of Ravad (French support network for victims of violence and
discrimination).
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IV. ARE YOU A VICTIM OF SIMILAR ACTS OF HARASSMENT? Do not hesitate to
contact us. Our role is also to accompany you or, with your agreement and
without revealing anything which might cause you to be identified, to tell your
story. This is important because it allows other people, to whom similar
misfortunes happen, to realise they are not the only ones. In fact, the first
reaction of victims of homophobic harassment is very often to turn in on
themselves, out of a sense of shame, telling themselves they are the only ones
to suffer such a thing. Very often the victims tell themselves they are the
problem. But they are not the problem, it is homophobia, whose prime effect
is to isolate them, the better to expose them to homophobes. DO NOT STAY
ISOLATED, CONTACT THE ASSOCIATIONS, CONTACT US!
Details of Autre cercle : http://www.autrecercle.org/
Details of Ravad: http://www.ravad.org/
Our details: [email protected] or +33 (0)6 10 55 63 60.
Tjenbé Rèd ! (meaning: Keep motivation! or Keep it hard!)
_
For Tjenbé Rèd,
David AUERBACH CHIFFRIN,
Chair
+33 (0)6 10 55 63 60 (France)
+596 (0)6 96 05 24 55 (West Indies)
[email protected]
With support of the Tjenbé Rèd’s board,
especially Lo Ann DALI,
general secretary
and politic secretary,
co-chair of Zami group of Tjenbé Rèd
about feminist and lesbian issues
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Billet publié sur le blog Outre-mers & pairs - Une actualité des homophobies & du sida du
point de vue des minorités ethniques en France ultramarine & hexagonale, hébergé par
Têtu.com
http://blogs.tetu.com/outre_mers_et_pairs/2010/09/09/thierry-le-martiniquais/
_
Billet publié sur Le Post
http://www.lepost.fr/article/2010/09/10/2213773_thierry-le-martiniquais-et-sa-petiteculotte-ou-de-la-difficile-reconnaissance-par-une-chaine-de-restaurants-d-un-cas-deharcelement-homophobe-entre-collegues.html
_
Billet publié sur le blog Makoumé - Une actualité des homophobies & du sida du point de vue
des minorités ethniques en France ultramarine & hexagonale, hébergé par Yagg.com
http://makoume.yagg.com/2010/09/10/thierry-le-martiniquais/
_
_
English translation of this French original text. In the event of any differences between the
English translation and the French original, the French text shall prevail. Translated by T. E.
9 septembre 2010 - Thierry le Martiniquais et sa «petite culotte»... ou de la difficile
reconnaissance par une chaîne de restaurants d’un cas de harcèlement homophobe entre
collègues - Communication n°TR10SOC17
http://www.tjenbered.fr/2010/20100909-99.pdf [fr]
http://www.tjenbered.fr/2010/20100909-98.pdf [en]
_
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accordingly can be downloaded and reproduced on condition that the source Tjenbé Rèd is
cited. If they are to be used on the Internet, please establish a link to our site. For any further
information, you can send an email to the site administrator - [email protected].
Right of withdrawal. If you no longer wish to receive these communications, simply send the
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THIERRY THE MARTINIQUAIS AND HIS «PANTIES»

Transcription

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