More tips for white employees than others? At the Palace of Versailles, the Ducasse restaurant rocked by accusations of racism and discrimination

Visitors to the Palace of Versailles will be treated to a special welcome on Tuesday, August 26. Employees of Ore, the restaurant of the great chef Alain Ducasse within the historic monument, will hold a picket line starting at 8 a.m. to denounce the highly questionable personnel management that appears to be prevalent in this chic establishment.

"Converging testimonies show that the director and the manager have established a toxic management style, with numerous racist and misogynistic excesses," denounced the local CGT union of Versailles in a press release published on Monday, August 25, which supports the movement with the CGT union of the château.

In a sector accustomed to resolving its problems in isolation, the social problems raised by certain "little hands" began to surface in the summer of 2024, regarding unpaid overtime . In this restaurant, where the working day is set from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., staff are expected to complete their tasks before leaving, even if it means after closing time.

But these free hours of work began to irritate people, especially since requests for payment were never followed up. So much so that last fall, a majority of the staff ended up refusing all overtime.

It is in this context that the dismissals for serious misconduct of two employees took place "for largely questionable reasons, while they had been fulfilling their service obligations for several years, which created a deleterious climate" , describes the CGT.

Especially since a second pitfall has been added: tips. The new management that arrived in January decided to unilaterally change the allocation rules. The 30% allocated to kitchen staff – 70% to everyone else – has been replaced by 30% for the kitchen, 20% for everyone else, with 50% now going to the heads of the line and middle management.

Worse, this unequal allocation covers, according to the CGT, a "racial distribution between employees, giving more tips to white employees than to those of color, while they perform comparable services."

This presumption seems to be supported by testimonies from employees who have endured degrading behavior. Like this kitchen staff member who was ordered by one of his superiors to take care of a bottle in which this manager had just urinated. "They know that these are colleagues who need to work to send part of their salary to their families. They take advantage of it," one employee told L'Humanité .

A supervisor promoted to manager last January is specifically targeted by these testimonies. He reportedly regularly referred requests from some of his subordinates to fleshy parts of his anatomy, or shook one of his recalcitrant colleagues by the shirt.

In this severely deteriorating social climate, the reception manager who had the courage to become a CGT union representative received special attention from management to cancel this Tuesday's strike. It was a wasted effort.

The Ducasse group did not respond to our questions. However, the restaurant's management, during an exchange with the CGT union, denied, after an internal investigation, any moral or sexist harassment against the union representative, stating: "We reaffirm that fairness between employees and respect for the dignity of each individual constitute fundamental principles within our company. No racist, sexist, or humiliating behavior or remarks are tolerated."