There was a demonstration Monday outside the Fairmont Hotel, after the sacking of an employee last month who got caught with a disposable toothbrush during a routine employee security check.
Noureddine, 56, who’s worked as kitchen staff since 2005, finished his shift on October 6. He picked up a disposable 72-cent toothbrush reserved for customers and put it in his bag, along with some pastries, which are reportedly offered by employees. Five days later, on October 11, he received a letter of dismissal by post.
Some fifty employees, joined by the union for hotels, cafés and restaurants, and the pastry chefs union, mobilised yesterday. “He did not intend to steal anything,” Jean-Pierre Messy, secretary general of the pastry chefs union, told Nice-Matin. He and his colleagues are calling for the “rehiring” of Noureddine.
In regards to the story, the Fairmont hotel management has issued an official statement: Further to the article appeared in Monaco Hebdo of November 3rd, 2016 containing the declaration made by the Labor Union of Cooks and Pastry Cooks of Monaco, the Management of the hotel Fairmont Monte Carlo wishes to bring some additional information which is not mentioned in the publication.

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On October 6th, 2016, within the framework of unannounced controls and as the internal rules of the establishment require it, a security guard of the hotel asked an employee at the end of service who was leaving the hotel, to open both bags that he carried. This is a simple routine check, known and accepted by all the employees. 

In the bags of the employee, the agent found articles stolen within the hotel, tidied up well, what denotes the intention in the gesture. It is false to say that these articles are put at the disposal of the employees of the hotel because they are reserved for the clientele. 

Having listened to the explanations of the employee, these deceitful actions were considered as a grave fault by the Management. The dismissal was notified to him. Indeed, the employer cannot tolerate such thefts among his 530 employees.”
Article first published November 6, 2016