Colleagues,
Our Union strongly denounces the unacceptable behavior of the company towards a young mother working in the French-speaking department handling banking products. Yet again, a complaint reaches our Union regarding pressure exerted on a new mother in the company — something that sadly no longer surprises us.
The colleague, a single mother of a 2-year-old child, has been facing pressure and degrading treatment from the moment she returned from maternity leave. Certain “clever” supervisor seems to believe that by applying psychological pressure, they will force her to resign! According to the company, it is perfectly “reasonable” for a breastfeeding mother to work only night shifts for an entire month, while she is still nursing. Even though she has officially informed them of her breastfeeding schedule, they mark her as “unjustifiably absent”! They also insist that she must be physically present in the office, completely ignoring the fact that she is a single parent caring for a small child.
Of course, they choose to ignore the reality: that public childcare facilities for infants are far too few to cover actual needs, and that the salary of a worker today is nowhere near enough to pay someone else to take care of the baby while working.
The colleague has raised all these concerns with the management and with HR — who, instead of addressing them, simply sent her back to the very people responsible! Their arrogance even reached the point of shouting at her, in front of another worker, that she must ask for permission just to go to the toilet or drink water!
HANDS OFF OUR COLLEAGUE
OUR NEEDS ARE NOT A COST
Our Union demands that the targeting of our colleague by the supervisor and the management stops immediately! We will not tolerate such disgraceful behavior towards any worker — especially towards mothers! We reject any insinuations involving our children and the idea that workers should “sacrifice” their lives so company KPIs are met!
We call on all workers to join and strengthen our Union, so we can stand together against every small or big issue in the workplace.
We demand:
- Remote work to be granted to the colleague for as long as needed.
- A permanent and stable morning schedule.
- An immediate end to all attacks against her.
- Real and substantial support for all working mothers in the company.
- The State to guarantee a place in public and free childcare facilities — with proper infant care units — for every child until primary school.