It’s a scene that the managers of a famous car dealership in Waterloo would have done without witnessing. On September 7, 2020, in their garage, a temporary worker who was doing his first day of work was beaten and kicked. Not by the staff, but by two managers from an outside company, who worked on site to clean the cars.
A father and son, who had won the trust of the bosses and took care of this particular task within the dealership. They were the ones who had called on the temporary worker in question, but during the lunch break, the climate soured between the three men.
According to the father and the son, the young man had frankly not been convinced by the quality of his work during the morning and at noon, he had asked to be paid in black. By also finding out about upcoming holidays. He was told he could leave right away, which he refused to do. And the discussion turned sour…
For the temporary worker who was injured and filed a complaint, but also for the car wash company: not having appreciated this scene of violence within their walls, the officials of the car dealership terminated the contract. And to top it off, the father and son, who live in Anderlecht, found themselves on the bench of the defendants of the criminal court, prosecuted for intentional assault and battery.
“This whole story is unfortunateagreed the father. I did not understand the behavior of this young person. This is not the first person to be fired from staff, we have never had a problem. But there, his words went beyond the scope of work, he didn’t want to leave, he had to be pushed back… He lost it, and so did we. I struck blows, it’s true. I haven’t slept.”
The president pointed out that when the situation got worse, it would have been better to call the police. “Without a doubtagreed the man. But I was embarrassed, we are independent, we had only been accepted into the car dealership for a few months…”
As for the son, his lawyer explained that seeing his father take blows, he came to his aid and, indeed, he hit. “Who wouldn’t defend his father?” counsel argued.
The judgment has just fallen: the two men are each given a 175-hour work sentence.