an employee faced with pressure from her employer to change her name

More than one in three young people is the victim of discrimination in employment: this is what emerges from the barometer of the Defender of Rights revealed by franceinfo on Tuesday, December 7. The Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, denounces the extent of this discrimination for 18-34 year olds and their deleterious consequences. The most cited criteria are gender, age, physical appearance and origin. A witness to these practices, who wishes to remain anonymous, agreed to tell his story.

This young woman explains that she was hired as a sales representative in a telecommunications company in June 2019. Two months later, her company asks her to change her name and surname. “They told me that a name of Maghrebian Arabic origin would not be good for their reputation with customers “, she explains.

Her management gives her an evening to think about it and the next morning, she receives an email with a list of French-sounding names and surnames. “I said no, that I won’t change, she continues. And around 2 p.m., the boss created an email address for me, telling me that was my new name and my new email address. “

“I felt rejected by society and locked myself in my home for three weeks without going out.”

She seized the industrial tribunal, which considered this summer, two years after the facts, that it was a feeling, but not discrimination per se. “It really humbled me, underlines the young woman. There is still now a small part of me that reminds me that I am of North African origin and that I do not have the same opportunities as someone else. ” She appealed the decision of the industrial tribunal and has since found work in another company. With his real name, and his real first name.