Storm over not guilty of gay slur
Print Edition
A French employment tribunal sparked outrage yesterday after ruling that a hair salon boss was not guilty of homophobia despite calling a gay employee a “faggot” in a text message explaining his dismissal.
In a ruling which critics said could encourage homophobia, the Paris tribunal opined that the slur was not homophobic because “it is known that hairdressers regularly employ homosexual people.”
The male employee, who was working for a trial period, received a text message that his boss, a woman, sent to him in error reading: “I am not keeping (the plaintiff) on, I’ll tell him tomorrow... I don’t like this guy, he’s a faggot, they’re all up to no good.”
The plaintiff was indeed told the following day that he would not be given a permanent job at the salon.
He took his case to the Prud’hommes, which settles disputes between employers and employees, saying he had been discriminated against because of his sexual orientation and had been deeply hurt by the content of the text message.
The salon said the employee was let go because he was “slow” and had “trouble fitting in”, refused to do certain tasks and “aimed to quickly get a management position”.
The tribunal, while recognizing the “inappropriate nature and content of the text message”, said the term used — pede (PD), short for pederast — “has entered into day-to-day language and has no pejorative or homophobic meaning in the manager’s mind”.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
