They denounce racist, Islamophobic or even homophobic statements. An investigation was opened after around two dozen employees of an emblematic brasserie in downtown Bordeaux denounced insults hurled at them by the establishment’s owner, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
In late October, 17 employees of the company located across from the Opera and Grand Hôtel de Bordeaux filed a complaint over “racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, sexist and homophobic comments” made by one of the managers.
According to their lawyer, Me Anne-Charlotte Moulins, five other people will follow the procedure, which was revealed in early November by Mediapart and Rue89 Bordeaux.
Insults and threats
One afternoon in October, the manager allegedly told employees “that he had allowed himself to be attacked, that there were too many blacks and Arabs at work”, before threatening to “fire us all”, describing an employee from Guadeloupe, who was now on sick leave.
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To a waiter who handed him a broom, the boss explained that “this is an Arab’s job”, pointing out “to a Senegalese colleague” that “the place for black people is in the basement”, the 42-year-old head waiter continued, noting that the people assigned were “vulnerable” because they were “in a regularization situation”.
According to the complainants, the company manager, who was also the manager of brasseries in Paris and on the Basque coast, was heavily drunk during the incident.
For his lawyer, Me Fabien-Jean Garrigues, he “did not remember what happened” on the day in question and “put forward the hypothesis that he had been drugged”. “The facts, from his perspective and from what was reported, are inexplicable and, given the proven facts, are indescribable and intolerable,” the board added.
