City of Montreal blue collar worker Maxime Charles hasn’t gone to work since April.
“Because I’m sick, I’m tired and I’m afraid,” he told reporters during a news conference Friday.
He alleges that since 2019 he’s been the target of racial slurs and bullying at his workplace in the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles.
“One of the workers came at my work,” he recounted, “he came to attack me, he pushed me aggressively.”
Charles added that he was also threatened, and this spring his locker was broken into and items stolen, and he saw what he believes was excrement spread on his locker.
“I don’t feel safe anywhere at work,” he explained.
He said he filed a complaint with his supervisor, and with police twice, and that he got a response only when the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) intervened.
“Last week we wrote to the Station 49 commander to ask for a follow up, and within less than a day the investigator called,” Fo Niemi, head of CRARR stated at the news conference by the workers.
Charles says he still has heard nothing from his employer nor his supervisor.
“He’s still at work and I’m home sick,” said Charles.
At an afternoon press briefing by the city, executive committee chair Dominique Ollivier said she was appalled to hear Charles’ story.
“It’s really unacceptable that something of this nature, this calibre would go on,” she responded when reporters told her what the worker said.
Earlier this week the city announced plans to overhaul the complaints process by this fall, but workers like Charles are worried about complaints that they have been filing for years.
“We are taking them very seriously,” Ollivier pointed out, “and we’re going to make sure that it comes to a resolution as fast as possible.”
She also said some amendments to the process have already been made.
“We changed the system this week to make sure that the people would be accompanied when they have to make a complaint,” she explained.
She added that there is now also better tracking of complaints to prevent them falling through the cracks.
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