Keystone-SDA
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June 10, 2024 – 6:17 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Unia denounced on Monday “dozens” of cases of harassment among employees at Rolex’s global headquarters in Geneva, some of which led to dismissals. For one of these cases, the union will refer the matter to the industrial tribunal.
“For years, cases of repeated harassment within the Rolex global service department in Geneva have been reported to the union. Given the number of these individual cases, we see that this is a collective situation,” Alejo Patiño, union secretary at Unia, told the press.
Around fifty testimonies reached the union, while around ten dismissals and around fifteen resignations were reported, but the cases could be more numerous among the hundred or so employees of the site. “We do not know the exact figures since we only receive the testimonies of those who wished to denounce,” noted the trade unionist.
This states that Unia sought to find solutions with Rolex, signatory of the Collective Labor Agreement (CCT) in the watchmaking sector, but that the union encountered “blockages”.
“At first they completely denied it. Secondly, they accepted an internal investigation, then an external audit which did not make it possible to put in place the measures requested by the employees,” said Mr. Patiño. Around fifteen employees then reported the situation to the Geneva cantonal office of inspection and labor relations (OCIRT) and, on this basis, OCIRT made a request for compliance.
“Harmful to staff health”
In a document addressed to one of these complainants in October 2023 and seen by AWP, the Geneva cantonal office of inspection and labor relations (OCIRT) says that “it appears that certain aspects relating to the organization of the work in place, as well as managerial practices and shortcomings in the prevention of psychosocial risks within the ‘Worldwide Service’ department have a detrimental effect on the health of the staff of this department”.
The labor inspectorate therefore requests “the implementation of measures adapted to the problems identified”. These measures should all have been put in place by April 30, a deadline which was postponed “by approximately two months”, Unia reports.
Gathered in the Unia premises, four former Rolex employees testified on Tuesday about the harassment they experienced for years. A manager of the “World Service” is particularly singled out, who was allegedly “protected” by management while he created a toxic climate, propagated by other managers in his pay.
“He was an unhealthy and self-righteous person who had established a real caste system. He reigned like a prince” after ascending to managerial positions in 2016, testified a former employee, who came to tell his story.
“Unfair dismissal”
Eric, another long-time employee, was fired in January by Rolex on the grounds that he “was no longer useful” to the company after having endured years of harassment and humiliation of all kinds, said -he affirmed. Before his dismissal, he was the victim of two road accidents while leaving work, including a serious bicycle accident after a session with general management where he says he was “taken to task”.
“The company knew it but this manager was protected. That’s what’s terrible, people were all afraid of him,” he relates.
Following the intervention of the OCIRT, this manager was dismissed last December but Unia emphasizes that it took “dozens and dozens of employees to find themselves on sick leave” to get to this point. “And, the example of Eric, shows that even after this intervention some were fired for having alerted,” laments Alejo Patiño.
The union will therefore file a complaint for “unfair dismissal” with the Industrial Court by the end of the month. “We are forced to do so, we have exhausted all the possibilities offered by social partnership,” underlines Mr. Patiño.
Contacted by AWP, the Rolex group had not reacted at the time of publication.
