"Racism Report 2004" is available for free - Zara

Racism Report 2004 Cases: Work Page 23
In April 2004 Ms. L. accompanies her sister-in-law who is three months pregnant and suffers from severe 115
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pain in the abdomen and bleeding to the Hospital Kaiser Franz Josef-Spital in Vienna. Ms. L. translates for her sisterin-law.
The doctor on duty can’t see any bleeding and doesn’t believe the patient. Ms. L. asks him what could be the
matter with her sister-in-law who is obviously in severe pain. The doctor asks the patient whether she’d had sexual
intercourse; when she affirms the question the doctor says: “Your sister-in-law is in so much pain because Turkish
and Arabic men screw too hard” and underlines his words with corresponding gestures. He also adds that these
men betray their wives. Ms. L. counters that he couldn’t generalise like that. Now the doctor asks her whether she
was Austrian. When Ms. L. says, yes, the doctor gets all wound up saying that lots of foreigners who were granted
Austrian citizenship didn’t even speak German properly. After a counselling meeting with Ms. L., ZARA writes a letter
of complaint to the doctor and his superior; this leads to a mediation talk at the hospital with the participation
of the doctor, his superior, a doctor from the EU project “migrant friendly hospital”, Ms. L. and a ZARA member of
staff. At first the doctor denies having made any of the remarks and for a while it is his word against that of Ms. L.
He eventually admits that there had been misunderstandings and that he hadn’t meant for things to come to that.
He repeatedly apologises to the women. At the end of the meeting he promises to avoid misunderstandings of the
kind in future.
Helping Hands Vienna send ZARA the following appeal by the
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Public Prosecution Office Vienna and asks for publication in the Racism
Report.
Work
Mr. O. from Nigeria was employed by a cleaning company for three months. After an assignment at a farm- 117
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ers market in the beginning of 2003 he is dismissed. The following reason for dismissal is given: “I’m sorry, but I don’t
know either why we have to fire you. We were told all blacks must go.” Several days later his wife accompanies him to
his workplace where they are told: “Bad work performance. I can’t always go for someone to interpret … there’s a lack
in communication … I’m sorry—I mean he was always polite, always please and thank you and all, but it just didn’t
work out with blacks. The client complained about the blacks …” The ZARA team initiates a mediation talk with the
company’s manager and Mr. O.; a ZARA member of staff is also present. Afterwards it is agreed that Mr. O. would be
re-employed. Until the time of writing, however, no other job has been offered to Mr. O. by the cleaning company.
Ms. H. from Senegal has lived in Austria since 1996. For the last 3 years she’s worked for a cleaning com- 118
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pany and was assigned to a team cleaning the offices at UNO City. She is content with her work and gets on well with
her superior. But there are ongoing problems with her headwoman, Ms. I. from former Yugoslavia. Ms. I. is constantly
criticising her performance and doesn’t answer her questions. Initially Ms. H. is in charge of cleaning the rooms on
the 4th floor of the UN building, then she’s relocated to the 7th and finally to the 9th floor without being told why.
Ms. H. believes that Ms. I. is behind it all and feels unaccepted because of her colour of skin. Ms. H. is under severe
psychological stress, suffers from sleep disorder and nervous attacks. ZARA writes a letter to the superior and arranges
an appointment for Ms. H. at “peregrine” in order for her to get psychological assistance. Ms. H. is very grateful and
makes use of the assistance.
The company is very co-operative and agrees to a mediation talk. In its long and intensive course it turns out
that the conflict between the headwoman Ms. I. and Ms. H. can’t be resolved. Ms. H. is therefore asked to work in
another team. Ms. H. asks for time to think about it. In the end she declines the offer as her experiences so far and
the resulting psychological stress are too severe.
Mr. M. from Iran is in search of employment as a receptionist. He’s been applying to corresponding adver- 119
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tisements and suspects the reason for receiving negative responses is related to his being a foreigner. His two most
recent applications have particularly added to this impression. After he contacts ZARA inquiries are made at the two
Viennese hotels in question. At the first hotel we are told that they were looking for a female receptionist and obviously
Mr. M. didn’t fulfil the requirement. The manager of the second hotel phones ZARA after receiving the letter of
complaint: At first Ms. R. speaks in a calm and matter-of-fact manner. She explains that her hotel employed many
migrants and that ZARA was abusing the Equality and Equal Opportunity Law. Eventually her outrage and anger
become increasingly obvious. She accuses ZARA of acting “like a sect”, and in any case, she as the employer was
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