The NRJ group had a meeting with the courts on Friday, November 15. And if the media welcomed the decision rendered by the Paris Court of Appeal concerning its former star host Sébastien Cauet, it on the other hand recorded a bitter failure in the Manu Lévy affair. The Paris industrial tribunal ruled in favor of the employees in the lawsuit between the radio and four former collaborators. The latter had denounced the deadly climate reigning in the station because of a “tyrannical boss”accusations that the star morning worker categorically refutes.
NRJ “reserves the right to appeal”
However, the acts of moral harassment were recognized and the radio was ordered to pay more than 310,000 euros to Isabelle Giami, Valentin Chevalier and Aude Fraineau. The majority of this sum corresponds to severance pay, reclassification of contract from CDD to CDI, overtime and paid leave. But the judgment also prohibits NRJ from paying 10,000 euros in damages to the three former voices of “6/10”, as moral damage. Cyrille Laporte, member of the social and economic committee, who contested a warning after an attempted dismissal, must also be compensated to the tune of 8,000 euros by Chérie FM, owned by NRJ. Only Pauline Bordja, another co-host, had all of her requests rejected.
“It's a great lifectory quite clear and severe for NRJ“, welcomed the columnists' lawyer, Me Pierre Vignal, contacted by telephone by AFP. For his part, NRJ “took note of the decisions announced” in a press release and “reserves the right to appeal” emphasizing “that the plaintiffs' requests are based in part on accusations taken up by a 2023 internal investigation” the validity of which is contested.
Toxic management denounced by Manu Lévy’s colleagues
On Tuesday April 2, 2024, “Libération” published an explosive investigation into the behavior of Manu Lévy within the station where he has worked since 2011. Collecting several testimonies from collaborators, the daily reported on the grueling pace imposed by the head of gang, also customary with homophobic, misogynistic and xenophobic remarks. A situation of discomfort, affecting their health, to which some had complained to Gaël Sanquer, the deputy director of musical media for the NRJ group, who would have systematically defended his presenter by pinning “the blackboard, caricatural and misleading” drawn up by the plaintiffs.
