In 2022, Geneva Airport dismissed an employee who denounced messages of a sexist and racist nature published in a WhatsApp group. The company’s appeals committee has just ruled in favor of the ex-employee and ordered the Airport to pay 100,000 francs to the latter, reveals RTS.
For the internal appeals committee of Geneva Airport, the situation is very clear: in 2022, the company dismissed an employee without valid reason.
The latter, a forty-year-old employed since 2007, had in 2021 denounced an internal WhatsApp group where “racist and sexist images” were exchanged, according to her lawyer.
The group in question had been created by the employee’s department head to share professional information. However, certain colleagues also freely distributed problematic photos and videos, as well as inappropriate comments about underage teenage girls.
Among messages consulted by La Tribune de Genève, there are photos of naked young women with the words “from 2020, the 2002s will be of age”, but also “images mocking certain nationalities or people with disabilities “, writes the daily.
Racist and sexual harassment
According to the appeals body, responsible for resolving disputes at first instance, the dissemination of this type of obscene content also constituted sexual and psychological harassment against the employee, herself racialized.
Finally, the denunciation of this group does not constitute a lack of loyalty towards the employer, judges the commission. It thus contradicts the Airport which had cited a lack of respect for the interests of the company at the time of the dismissal.
The internal appeals committee also orders Genève Aéroport to pay 100,000 francs to its former employee.
Two open investigations
At the time this affair came to light, and given the suspicion of child pornography, an internal investigation was opened. At the same time, the public authority had filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Finally, the courts issued an order not to enter into the matter and concluded that there were no criminally reprehensible images “with sexual or racist connotations”.
On the Airport side, the internal investigation recognized that certain content broadcast in the WhatsApp group was “questionable”. However, she ruled out the existence of a situation of harassment. The Airport therefore criticized its employee for unfairly accusing her colleagues and dismissed her immediately, at the end of 2022.
Corporate culture “conducive to harassment”
The employee is currently still supported by the Second Observatory, a French-speaking association with expertise in sexual harassment in the professional sphere. His lawyer and the public services union (SSP) strongly criticize the airport’s corporate culture which, according to them, is conducive to harassment.
When contacted, Geneva Airport management recalled having commissioned an internal investigation at the time which ruled out any situation of harassment. She is therefore studying the possibility of appealing the decision.
As for possible sanctions or measures taken internally, the public authority refuses to comment. But it emphasizes that it does not tolerate any attack on personality or any discrimination and that a prevention and reporting system already exists within the company.
Radio subject: Charlotte Frossard
Adaptation web: doe
