Summary

Even top restaurants like Maxim’s felt the economic downturn. Hassan faced an employee problem. He had hired a waiter named Claude. French law granted many rights to employees who worked for an employee for six months or more. Claude was the perfect employee until after those six months were up. His productivity and speed were suddenly cut in half. Furthermore, he made no bones about his disinterest in improving. Claude was cheating Hassan on time cards by claiming time and a half. He knew that Hassan had no choice but to pay him. By checking the pay records during the time Claude was employed, it was easy to see that he was a scam artist. Hassan told Jacques to fire Claude, which he did. But, Jacques returned with his union representative.

The union representative claimed that Claude’s dismissal was not legal. Hassan...