Posted on 06/27/2005 1:25:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Posh N.Y. eatery alleges insubordination, drinking on the job
Three former waiters at New York’s posh 21 Club, where a hamburger costs $30, have filed a $5 million discrimination lawsuit saying they were fired for being French.
In a civil suit made public on Monday at Manhattan Supreme Court, the three men, Rene Bordet, 68, Jean Claude Lesbre, 63 and Yves Thepault, 68, said the restaurant’s management falsely accused them of drinking wine on the job and “created and fostered an environment rife with anti-French sentiment.”
Both Bordet and Lesbre worked for 10 years as waiters and floor captains before being fired in 2004 after accusations of drinking on the job. Thepault, who worked for 14 years as a waiter, was fired in 2005 for gross insubordination after an argument with a chef over a hamburger, court papers said.
The suit accused 21 Club of engaging in “a concerted and egregious course of action to rid (the restaurant) of its older and long-term employees of French national origin.”
Bordet and Lesbre deny they were drinking alcohol and said when another employee was caught drinking on the job, on four occasions, he was only given a one-week suspension.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Works for me.
Really, they have a case for age discrimination - not for being French. Sacre blue!
I guess one could argue that firing people who drink wine on the job is fostering ant-French sentiment...
Maybe they wouldn't have been so easily identified as "French" if they hadn't carried a white flag and kept their hands raised continually...
That lawsuit shouldn't survive a preliminary motion to dismiss: It's common knowledge that the French themselves have created an anti-French environment. You'd think that would be a basic tenet of British common law as adopted by the American legal system.
All of these people worked there for a decade-plus. Are they arguing that the employer JUST NOW discovered they were French?
The lost appetites of customers being served by women with hairy armpits probably had something to do with it too.
Qeul domage.
(Or is it "quelle"? I forget my high school French.
Only in NY.
.Really, they have a case for age discrimination - not for being French....
Yes but being French they could no better than screw up a job discrimination suit.
If Frogs drink wine do they get drunk?
I agree, they should be sueing Jacques Chirac.
Or perhaps the failure to bathe caused them to smell like an over-ripe brie cheese.
Frankly I can hardly think of a better reason to fire somebody then simply being French.
"fired for being French"
Gimme a break.....they were HIRED because of being french, in that artsy-fartsy ristorante!
I guess they surrendered on the age discrimination claim.
Wait a minute, these French work?
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