“It’s the dismissal of the buzz”: a cleaning agent from Paris in France on Tuesday challenged the industrial tribunal of Créteil his dismissal for a photo posted without his knowledge on the internet showing him, in working clothes, lying on the edge of a Parisian shop window. “For us this photo, a stolen photo, is not acceptable as justification for a dismissal for serious misconduct“, summarizes Joachim Scavello, the lawyer of Adama Cissé.
In September 2018, this employee of a subsidiary of Derichebourg had taken a break, provided for in his contract, during a round of waste collection from street bins in Paris, his work since 2011. He takes off his safety shoes – due pain in the left foot, according to his explanations – and lies on the Parisian sidewalk, barefoot, dressed in his green and neon yellow outfit.
Licensed for gross negligence
On Twitter, a surfer takes a photo and posts the photo with a harsh comment: “This is what the local taxes of Parisians are used to pay the cleaning agents to snooze, we understand why Paris is so disgusting”. A month later, in October 2018, Adama Cissé was summoned by his employer and dismissed in the process for “serious misconduct”.
“This attitude revealing your desire to doze off during your service was the subject of a severe complaint from our client”, justifies his employer, the company Polysotys.
“This is inappropriate”
At the hearing, the 37-year-old former cleaning officer said he was initially shocked by the dissemination of the photo without his knowledge. “The person who took the photo did not try to understand what was going on, he did not care about my health, it does not happen”, he says. His lawyer also invokes the “image rights“and especially denies that this photo is a “acceptable proof” gross negligence allegedly committed by his client.
“Today, we have judges on every street corner with their smartphones, ready to judge anyone”, he raises, ensuring moreover that the photo has “allegedly hit “ the image of the Polysotys company. “They (the employer note) did not complain of a bad performance but of a bad image”, he said at the end of the hearing. As a result, the lawyer requests financial compensation and the cancellation of the dismissal for serious misconduct.
Two other third party claims
Faced with him, the company Polysotys ensures that Adama Cisse has not been dismissed for “make an example” or to reply to the tweet. According to his lawyer Gaëlle Le Breton, if he is “clear” in the company regulations that employees represent it during their work, this is not the main reason for the dismissal. Just before the hearing, she thus communicated two new documents implicating Mr. Cissé: a warning for non-compliance with safety rules and a notification of unjustified absence. “These letters try to throw even more discredit (on my client, note)”, replied Mr. Scavello, before replying point by point to these two challenges.
The decision was reserved for June 19.
–
