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A woman is taking her employer to court for failing to give her any work for 20 years, despite paying her full salary.
Laurence Van Wassenhove, a disabled French woman who suffers from partial paralysis and epilepsy, said she had been paid a full-time salary for two decades, despite being assigned no work for the past several years. She alleged that this was a form of ‘discrimination and moral harassment’, which has caused her to feel isolated.
France Telecom (now known as Orange) denied the allegations and instead affirmed that efforts were made to accommodate her health condition.
Van Wassenhove started working for the telecom giant in 1993 and was initially assigned roles suited for her condition, such as secretarial and human resources positions. However, in 2002, she requested to be transferred to a different region in France.
Although it was approved, her lawyers claimed that the new workspace was unable to adapt to her needs. As a result, Orange did not assign her any work, yet provided her with a full salary.
According to The Sun, Van Wassenhove stated that “being paid, at home, not working is not a privilege. It’s very hard to bear”. She called herself ‘an outcast secretary’ and claimed that Orange did this to push her to quit her job.
Her lawyer David Nabet-Martin argued that the isolation resulted in a loss of professional purpose, causing her severe depression. The company denied any misconduct, instead emphasising that “we took her medical condition into account and explored options for her to return to work in an adapted position”. It further said that frequent sick leaves taken by employees made implementing these options difficult.
But Van Wassenhove’s lawyers claimed that the company effectively forced her into a state of ‘professional limbo’.
In 2015, Van Wassenhove also filed a complaint with the authorities for the Fight against Discrimination and Orange assigned a mediator to resolve the dispute. However, she said her situation did not improve, forcing her to take the drastic step of suing the company.
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