An executive from the Groupama insurance group will be tried on September 21 for having called an employee of his Antilles-Guyane establishment in Fort-de-France a “dirty nigger”. For its part, Groupama has already decided to dismiss the employee responsible for the insults, after an extraordinary meeting of a board of directors and an economic and social council (CES).
After this verbal assault, Groupama employees stopped working in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana on Thursday before demanding the departure of the offending executive. The latter, in an email addressed to all of his former colleagues, apologized and condemned his attitude. His words had been strongly condemned by the management on Friday.
No wage deduction for strikers
“The social movement that began on June 17 at Groupama Antilles-Guyane, following an altercation between two employees with racist remarks, found its outcome today, June 21, with the signing of a conflict resolution protocol signed by all the unions, ”the group also said in a press release.
The crisis exit protocol provides for the resumption of work on Tuesday, and “no deduction from wages has been committed against striking employees”, specifies the group. The decentralized mutualist structure employs 220 people in the three territories.
“Neither our values nor our identity”
This act “does not reflect our values or our identity”, explained President Jacques-Charles Christophe and Managing Director Patrick Raynaud. Before specifying: “Groupama Antilles-Guyane is a community of men and women, elected officials and employees, who embody real values of proximity, responsibility, solidarity, commitment and respect”.
As for the victim of the insults, a union delegate from Force Ouvrière (FO), he thanked management and staff in a press release published on Saturday, recalling that such acts “unfortunately become trivial because of their repetition”.