Mi, Feb 15th 2023
Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland (Credit: Nestle Schweiz).
Nestlé will pay a former employee 2 million Swiss francs after a Swiss court this month ruled that the giant food company was indeed guilty of bullying her, local newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported.
A court in Vaud, the canton where Nestlé headquarters are located, has ordered the company to pay 2 million CHF in nine years of lost compensation to Yasmine Motarjemi following a 12-year legal battle.
“My lawsuit against Nestlé was never about money. I wanted a court to recognize the injustice done to me,” Motarjemi told the newspaper after the verdict had been handed down.
Motarjemi began working at Nestlé in 2000 as Corporate Food Safety Manager and Assistant Vice-President. Before that, she served as Director of Food Security and Food Aid at the World Health Organization.
In 2003, Motarjemi asked the company to remove a line of baby biscuits from Nestlé’s production after receiving complaints from parents. In 2006, she called for an audit on the suspected toxicity of baby products, according to local newspaper Le Temps. In 2009, 300,000 babies in China were poisoned via toxic Nestlé baby products and 13 of them died. The director who approved of the toxic products was promoted over Motarjemi, according to Der Bund.
In 2010, Nestlé fired Motarjemi.
Yasmine Motarjemi (Credit: Whistleblowers Network News).
In March 2011, Motarjemi filed a lawsuit against the giant Swiss company alleging that she had endured moral and psychological harassment. Motarjemi said that she endured such psychological damage that she had to apply for an occupational disability pension at the age of only 55. In early 2020, a civil court of appeals acknowledged that her complaint was indeed grounds for a harassment lawsuit and that she had been intimidated in “an insidious manner.” That court ruled that Nestlé had violated Swiss Labor Code.
“Nestle must pay my client the entire lost wage bill retrospectively, from the moment of termination until retirement,” Motarjemi’s lawyer, Mathilde Bessonnet, told the Tages-Anzeiger. Motarjemi had originally asked Nestlé to pay a symbolic amount of one franc in damages, plus 2.1 million francs for her lost wages and expenses.
“We sincerely regret the almost 12 years of litigation and wish to bring this legal matter to a final close,” a Nestlé spokeswoman said. She iterated that the company does not tolerate harassment and takes such allegations seriously. Nestlé cannot appeal the decision as the judgement is final.
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