Dutch companyA French toilet attendant has lost her job after six years of service after a discussion arose about ‘accepting’ tips. 53-year-old Sarah claims she was fired because she accepted ‘1 or 2 euros’ from a generous customer. Her employer, the Dutch company 2theloo, cannot respond to the commotion due to the ongoing lawsuit, but does state that the woman has been guilty of ‘serious misconduct’.
53-year-old Sarah, mother of two children and who has been working at Montparnasse train station in Paris almost every day for years, sought out the media in France after her dismissal. Her story has been widely picked up, partly thanks to a popular petition started by a well-known MP, Thomas Portes. “For a tip of 1 euro, this person is put in the trash like a Kleenex (a tissue, ed.),” says Portes in conversation with the French news channel BFMTV. “She did not receive any documents from the company for four months, which meant she could not register to receive unemployment benefits.” When asked, 2theloo cannot respond to Portes’ claims. “As much as we would like that, we do not want to disrupt the investigation.”
The management of 2theloo, a toilet chain from Hoofddorp, had summoned the French toilet attendant after she allegedly ‘accepted’ a tip of 1 euro that a customer had left on the counter in November last year, various French media write. This was allegedly recorded by company surveillance cameras. The woman was then called to account, after which she was fired shortly afterwards.
The managers allegedly accused her of theft after reminding her that tips must be collected by the company and not directly by her, according to French reports. 2theloo cannot confirm the reason for dismissal. “We adhere to every letter of the law,” a spokesperson assures us A.D.
‘They don’t care’
In the meantime, the toilet attendant chooses to attack. “Six years of cleaning up feces. 1 euro, 2 euros, and you kick me out? You’re taking six years of my life away. I don’t think that’s right,” the woman says, upset BFMTV. “I was shocked, I even asked for forgiveness! But no, they threw me out, they didn’t care. I took this job to feed my children. And now they fire me for 1 euro? That’s not fair.”
In a petition that has already collected almost 35,000 signatures, Thomas Portes criticizes 2theloo’s slowness in providing important documents to the cleaning lady ‘who was fired overnight’. There is also talk of unpaid hours, the reduction of timetables to prevent employees from paying for breaks and unlawful dismissals. “This umpteenth abuse is the continuation of a long list,” Portes states in the petition. He provides no evidence for the accusations. The Frenchman feels extra involved in this issue because he used to work in the French railway network and knows the conditions under which employees have to work.
‘We never simply dismiss’
53-year-old Sarah, who never wants to work as a toilet attendant again, does not intend to stop there either. She has decided to take her case to the dismissal judge. That may take place after the summer. Until then, her employer remains tight-lipped. “We confirm that an employee has been dismissed due to serious misconduct,” 2TheLoo said when asked. “The dismissal is currently the subject of proceedings in a French court, on which we do not wish to comment at this stage,” the Dutch company said.
Over the past ten years, 2theloo has worked as a subcontractor for SNCF in about thirty stations in France. The contract runs until 2026. In the past year, the company has fired about twenty people, the Belgian newspaper reports The last news. According to the unions, many dismissals are ‘unjustified’. “We never just fire people,” a spokesperson responded to that accusation. The company does not want to comment on the number of layoffs.
Where are the toilets?
2theloo operates more than 175 public toilets throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands. The toilets are usually located at motorway service stations, shopping centres, train stations and as well as tourist destinations such as Notre Dame and the Louvre in Paris, Covent Garden in London.
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 loses her job after 6 years after a fuss about ‘tip’: ‘They fire me for 1 euro!’ | Abroad){kind=link}