Alain Sylvere Tsamas, the CGT representative sent to court by Monoprix for defending a store manager

Finding himself in court is usually an unusual experience. But for Alain Sylvere Tsamas, the exception tends to repeat itself: in four years, this CGT representative claims to have been served with four summonses by his employer, Monoprix, with two appearances in the Court of Appeal and one in the Court of Cassation. This Wednesday, he was due to appear before the Nanterre court (Hauts-de-Seine), sued by the retail group for defamation.

The union representative, however, explains that he was only doing his duty by publicly defending a store manager who felt he was the victim of moral harassment . "This suffering manager told me about the ordeal he went through for two years ," explains the CGT representative. "He recorded in a file all the humiliation he suffered at the hands of his regional manager. Since then, he has been demoted to a smaller store, which he experienced as a punishment."

In several posts published on social networks in January and February 2025, Alain Sylvere Tsamas accused the brand of not having carried out a proper investigation into the affair. Furious, management ordered him on February 24 to remove all the publications on the grounds that they were "denigrating and defamatory" , illustrating a "clear intention to harm the Monoprix company" . Faced with the union representative's refusal, it finally decided to take him to court, asking the court to order him to remove all the publications, under penalty of 1,000 euros per day of delay. For his part, the CGT representative denounced an abusive procedure , aimed at preventing him from carrying out his activities as a union representative.