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香水の付けすぎでファイヤード(解雇)!?
今日はニューヨークで起きているささやかだけど人々の関心を引いているニュースを紹介します。出典は「NEW YORK POST」誌。

LOST JOB 'OVER MY PERFUME'
(香水で失業しちゃうの?)

カスタマーサポートセンターで働いていたサリバンさん(ブルックリン在住、女性24才、黒人)は「香水の付けすぎ」という理由で解雇(Fired、ファイヤード)された本当の理由は人種差別であると雇用主だったマインドパール社(ロングアイランド)を相手に訴えを起こしました。

マインドパール社は顧客から彼女の香水に対するクレームが相次いでいることが解雇の理由として「前向きに彼女と争いたい」(vigorously contest her claims)と抱負を述べています。

このニュースが、ニューヨーカーを驚かせたのは「たんに香水の付けすぎで解雇されるのか?」という素朴な驚きと疑問。ニューヨークポストは一週間後に再度このニュースを取り上げます。

FIRING LINES:
CAN YOU REALLY GET CANNED FOR WEARING TOO MUCH PERFUME?

(解雇物語:香水の付けすぎで本当に解雇可能か?)

解雇の本当に理由が「香水」だったのか、それとも「人種差別」だったのか事実は不明ですが、労働者はどんな理由でも解雇されるという事実にアメリカ人自身が改めて驚くという内容の記事になっています。それゆえ解雇問題で争おうとすれば、アメリカではかなりセンシティブな問題である人種問題くらいまでいかないと裁判では闘えない現実があります。



「本当に香水程度で解雇されるのか?」という問いに対して、

「答えはYESだ」(The answer: Absolutely)

「それどころか、それ以下の理由でさえ解雇可能だ(you can be canned for doing less than that)。雇用主は従業員を、よい理由でも悪い理由でもそして何もない理由で(for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason)解雇できる、と雇用の法律専門家は語ります」

Working America(正しい名称が不明のため「全米雇用連合会」とここでは勝手に命名します)のディレクターであるポーラ・ブラントナーさんはこう言います:

「私は15年間、雇用関連の法律を専門にしてきましたが、アメリカ人が抱く労働法に対するもっとも大きな誤解(the biggest misperception)は、おそらく雇用主は正当な理由がなければ従業員を首にできないという幻想でしょう」

「実は、できるのです」(you can get fired for anything)


香水の問題を通り超えて、米国の厳しい雇用模様が見えてきます。アメリカ映画では「You are fired!」(お前はクビだ!)とボスに宣言されたらその場で去っていく状業員の姿は日常的な光景です。解雇通知までもめにもめて、通知後も3ヶ月くらい猶予がある日本の雇用事情からすると、にわかに信じがたいアメリカの「その場解雇」ですが、本当なんですね。

余談ですが・・・こういう私はかってイギリス系の証券会社で働いておりましたが、そのときの社内ルールとしてボスに呼び出され解雇宣言を受けたら自分のデスクに戻れませんでした。

解雇される直前にシステム部の人間が密かにその社員のパスワードを無効にしておきますのでデスクに戻ってもシステムに悪さはできませんが、とにかくまっすくドアから出ていくしかなく戻れない。

デスクに残された私物は後日宅配で自宅に届けられます。これほど一刀両断的な「You are fired!」を現実に目撃したときは驚きの光景でした。




---------------QUOTE---------------
LOST JOB 'OVER MY PERFUME'

October 1, 2007 -- She wore too much Red Door, so they showed her the door.

That's the claim of a Brooklyn woman who says she was fired as a customer-service rep because she wore too much perfume.

Jorinda Sullivan, 24, of Canarsie is suing her former employer, Mindpearl, a customer-service center in Melville, L.I., for $1 million in Brooklyn federal court, claiming that co-workers' complaints about her perfume morphed into thinly veiled racial discrimination.

After complaints about one perfume, Sullivan switched to Elizabeth Arden's signature Red Door - but said she was soon hauled back into the supervisor's office for the same reason.

Later, she was allegedly attacked over her personal hygiene and asked what soap, shampoo and deodorant she used.

At that point, she decided she was being harassed because she is black and complained to the state Division of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In February, she was fired because, her boss said, she'd been the subject of three customer complaints the previous week.

Vincent Gaines, chairman and CEO of Mindpearl, said, "The company denies any wrongdoing and intends to continue to vigorously contest her claims."
---------------QUOTE---------------


---------------QUOTE---------------
FIRING LINES
CAN YOU REALLY GET CANNED FOR WEARING TOO MUCH PERFUME? DRINKING THE WRONG BEER - AND IT HAPPENS


October 8, 2007-- As Jorinda Sullivan tells it, it wasn't chronic lateness that got her fi red. It wasn't talking back to the boss, or screwing up an important project. Nope, it was perfume.
As The Post reported last week, Sullivan, a 24-year-old from Brooklyn, says she was canned from her job as a customer-service rep because she laid on the scent too heavily, and customers complained.

For some readers the unlikely axing may have recalled a story that was widely reported in March, involving four municipal workers in Hookset, N.H., who were pink-slipped for another uncommon reason: gossiping. (As some pointed out at the time, firing office workers for gossiping is akin to firing kangaroos for jumping.)

Sullivan, who's black, says the underlying reason she was fi red was racism, and she has filed suit; her employer denies any wrongdoing. The New Hampshire case has likewise wound up in litigation. The courts will wade through the details, but in the meantime there's an immediate lesson to be drawn from these cases for anyone asking in amazement: Can you really be fired for hitting the Shalimar too hard, or whispering about your boss' comb-over?

The answer: Absolutely - in fact, you can be canned for doing less than that. Generally speaking, “An employer can fire someone for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all," says Kevin Zwetsch, an attorney specializing in employment law.


While this isn't breaking news - so-called “employment at will" has long been the rule in the United States - it inevitably comes as a big surprise to many workers, who tend to believe some kind of workplace bill of rights must apply in such situations.

“I've been an employment lawyer for 15 years, and probably the single biggest misperception about the law is that an employer has to have a reason before they can fire you," says Paula Brantner, the program director for Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO that advocates for nonunion workers, and offers an “Ask-a-lawyer" service on its Web site that fields many inquiries about questionable firings.

“Most people don't know you can get fired for anything," she says. “They think they have rights they don't have."
---------------QUOTE---------------
(2007-10-10)
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