Essonne: a driver sanctioned for buying chocolates in Belgium with his company vehicle

The Versailles administrative court of appeal ruled in favor of the management of the Barthélémy Durand d’Étampes public health establishment (EPS), ruling that it had not committed any “fault” after having sanctioned a driver who wanted to help themselves to fuel and car parts in the garage of the psychiatric hospital.

The driver had “insulted his superior”

This employee of the public health establishment (ESP) Barthélémy Durand since 2015 had in fact been the subject of “disciplinary proceedings” in 2017. On September 10, 2018, he finally received a “temporary exclusion” of “six months”, including “five suspended”.

The hospital had justified this sanction by the fact that the driver had “insulted his superior”, and that he had “attempted to benefit from undue advantages” such as fuel or “spare parts” belonging to the public hospital garage. He had also “taken advantage of business trips with the service vehicle to bring back tobacco from Belgium, in violation of tax regulations, and chocolates”.

But a few weeks after this sanction was pronounced, this man assigned to the team of “multipurpose drivers” asked be compensated for damages which he considered to have suffered as a result of this “unjustified” disciplinary procedure.

Victim of a “cabal”

Failing to win his case, the one who said to himself victim of “moral harassment” had seized the administrative court of Versailles to order the EPS to pay him more than €53,000. Rejected, he therefore made appeal of the judgment : he maintained that his working conditions were “dramatic” since he was “no longer greeted” by certain colleagues, and said he was the victim of a “cabal”.

However, “these allegations – moreover not established – do not allow us to presume the existence of moral harassment on the part of his employer”, objects the administrative court of appeal of Versailles in a judgment dated February 6, 2024 which has just been made public.

The medical certificate describing his “pathology” and intended for the medical committee did not allow the judges to establish that EPS Barthélémy Durand would have “asked him to justify the medical reason for his work stoppage in violation of medical confidentiality”.

Furthermore, if the driver maintained that the “grievances” with which he was accused by his superiors were “unfounded”the insult uttered against its leader was “precisely reported in a certificate in October 2016”, underline the magistrates.

He had taken “detours” in Belgium

The applicant himself had also “admitted” to having used “the expression in question” in an interview report in November 2018, the judges recall. During this interview, he also admitted to having “ brought back tobacco and chocolates on occasion detours in Belgium.

Finally, “the attempt to obtain fuel and spare parts is sufficiently established by the interview report of October 24, 2016 of three colleagues”, estimates the administrative court of appeal of Versailles.

“The circumstance that the state of health [du requérant] would have deteriorated does not allow us to attribute to his employer a desire to harm“, just like the fact of having “chosen” the month of November to enforce this sanction when it was precisely the “month of payment of the remainder of the service bonus”…

Finally, “neither the certificates of certain EPS agents” nor those “produced by the applicant” make it possible to demonstrate “the unfounded nature of the grievances which gave rise to the disciplinary sanction”. The driver is therefore not justified in seeking “conviction” from his employer and has even been ordered to pay him €1,500 for his legal costs.

CB / PressPepper

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