Empty fridges, chairs turned upside down on tables… and employees playing cards or chatting! Welcome to the restaurant “Les Reflets du Val d’Argent”, located in the eponymous campsite in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (Haut-Rhin). For a little over a month, the establishment has been the scene of a grotesque situation. Since the manager, a certain Patrice P., disappeared on August 9.
“He called me in the morning to ask me to open because he was unable to do so,” remembers Yaël, one of the four employees. “I had it twice again after that,” adds his colleague Ludovic. “He first told me that he was going to the emergency room in Colmar because he was vomiting blood. Then to Strasbourg. Then I received a message that said he would be placed in a coma for twelve hours. And nothing more! »
The person concerned never answered the calls or gave any news. Disappeared ? Deceased ? Obviously, none of his macabre scenarios are valid. The fifty-year-old is alive… and far from all that. “We called the police the same evening because we were worried and after checking, they told us that his phone was limited to Valence, Montélimar then Montpellier! So he was on the road,” Yaël continues.
Information that the military does not confirm… Without denying that the manager was indeed checked in the “south-east of France”. He even told one of their colleagues to “have a good time”! Enough to raise the suspicion of a “disturbing disappearance” and therefore the searches.
To not lose their rights
There remains the restaurant, where the employees always clock in at their usual working hours. Not to serve the slightest customer, impossible since there is no longer enough to cook, but to not lose their rights. “If we no longer come, it will be considered as job abandonment, the labor inspectorate told us,” explains Ludovic. “We will no longer have any chance of recovering everything he owes us. »
In particular their salary for the month of July, unpaid for half of them. Not to mention paid leave, possible severance pay, etc. “It can add up to quite a bit of money when it arrives,” continues the cook, without complacency about the situation. Far from there. With his colleagues, they hope to find a solution as quickly as possible and are ringing every doorbell.
The public prosecutor was thus requested so that a judicial liquidation could be put in place. “He told us about two months at least…” A lawyer was also consulted, without being involved in the matter for the moment. “It’s expensive and we have to pay up front. But with what money ? », complains Olivier, who was hired last March. In a business that was going well at the time. You only have to look at the numerous reviews on the Internet to confirm this.
“He was very good in cooking and knew how to do everything,” recalls the owner of the campsite Roland Quincieu, who concluded a rental management lease in 2019 with the famous Patrice. Without, since then, experiencing any major problems with him. His employees describe a boss with fluctuating motivation in recent months. Not in any case comparable to his enthusiasm for refilling the beer tap…
“But we didn’t suspect anything, we couldn’t imagine that,” they insist. “We could just see that he was declining and that maybe he would tell us that it would be over at the end of the season. » The adventure therefore ended, despite themselves, earlier, and the employees today especially do not want to see their boss again. They would simply like to turn the page, like the owner of the campsite who is also “harmed” by the situation.
“It’s a crazy story, we’re all prisoners,” says the latter, who is bringing in food trucks to alleviate the situation. “But it’s not the same and with what’s happening, I’m not going to find a buyer right away. Decisions must be made now. » With unpaid bills piling up, the electricity should soon be cut off at the restaurant. Enough to complicate the daily life of employees a little more, who until then keep a smile for the occasion. “It’s better to laugh than cry,” assures Olivier. “But people can’t imagine: it’s exhausting, what we’re going through. »