A CLEANER WHO was molested at a Paris luxury hotel by a Qatari guest in 2010 has been awarded €57,000, according to a court ruling seen by AFP.
The Paris labour relations tribunal found that the five-star Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome and the company that provides its cleaning crew lacked sufficient safeguards against such incidents.
It ordered the Park Hyatt to pay the cleaner €30,000, while the service provider must pay €27,000 over the incident involving a member of the entourage of a Qatari prince.
The cleaner, a Guinean national who is now aged 33 and requested anonymity, was fired in January 2011 for refusing to transfer to another hotel after reportedly attempting suicide and taking sick leave on several occasions for “post-traumatic stress”.
The tribunal ruled that her dismissal was “tantamount to discrimination”.
The hotel was also faulted for failing to alert the police on the evening of the assault, “which allowed the aggressor to flee” the following day.
The Hyatt Paris-Vendome is an exclusive five-star hotel, which charges anything between €700 and €2,600 for a room per night.
“It’s a first in the area of sexual harassment,” the cleaner’s lawyer Maude Beckers told AFP regarding the ruling.
The Park Hyatt said it was in “total disagreement” with the ruling and would appeal.
The ruling is “based on multiple untruths and shows that the tribunal was manipulated,” regional vice president Michel Jauslin told AFP.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
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