The Paris prosecutor’s office had closed the complaint of a former employee for sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault against the financial director of the French Football Federation (FFF). But the Paris industrial tribunal finally ordered the FFF to pay 10,000 euros in damages.
The court found the French football body guilty of “Breach of its obligation to combat acts of sexual harassment” attributed to the financial director of the instance with regard to the plaintiff, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from the same sources, which confirms information from the daily The team. The decision is provisionally enforceable.
The parties were informed on Friday of the outcome of the judgment, but are still awaiting the reasons for the decision, which will be communicated to them in the coming days. The FFF has stated its intention to appeal when it becomes aware of the decision.
Complainant’s lawyer, Me Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard, was satisfied that the industrial tribunal had “Put the words on the behavior complained of by qualifying them as sexual harassment, unlike the Paris prosecutor’s office, which had surprisingly closed the case without follow-up” in July 2019 on the penal aspect. decision “Does not allow us to understand why the FFF has taken the side of its director to such an extent, but my client is satisfied that this part of the file is finished after several years of proceedings”, she added.
The FFF will appeal
The lawyer of the FFF, Me Florent Dousset, specified that the federation “Will not accept this decision and will appeal”. “This judgment appears to be in total contradiction with the assessment of the facts made by the public prosecutor who dismissed a criminal complaint relating to the same facts, with the same elements”, he added, stressing that “Other claims, in particular moral prejudice”, had been rejected by the industrial tribunal.
The plaintiff accused in particular her superior of having tried to tear her a kiss on two occasions, at the end of 2017 and during the World Cup of 2018, also reporting “Insistent glances”, of “Daily remarks” and “Absolutely inappropriate observations”.
The management of the FFF had sent a ” recall the order “ to its financial director and set up training “Anti-harassment” at its headquarters, boulevard de Grenelle, in Paris.
The former employee claimed more than 60,000 euros from her former employer for non-pecuniary damage, failure of the employer to fulfill its obligations to protect and for having potentially been deprived of a permanent contract.