2023-11-07 18:06:31
Published on Nov. 7, 2023 at 4:16 p.m. Updated on Nov. 7, 2023 at 5:06 p.m.
Unédic has just won an important round in its dispute with Houria Aouimeur, the former national director of DUA-AGS, the establishment of the unemployment insurance scheme which manages the wage guarantee scheme for failing companies . Nearly ten months after her dismissal for serious misconduct, the Paris Industrial Tribunal rejected her request for recognition of whistleblower status in summary proceedings this Tuesday, a status which she had managed to avail of to numerous media. , we learned from judicial sources.
“The deciding judge considered that she could not disclose anything that Unédic would have ignored. The best proof is that his first employment contract expressly specified his mission to initiate audits, reacted Unédic’s lawyer, Frédéric Benoist. “It is paradoxical,” he added, “but this decision protects real whistleblowers against attempts at misuse to cover up wrongdoing. »
Serious malfunctions
Houria Aouimeur’s lawyer, Stéphanie Lamy took note of the decision but without wishing to comment on it as she had not yet been able to consult the motivation for the order (it will be transmitted in the coming days). “It is, however, a bad signal for the whistleblowers who were reassured by the judgment of the Court of Cassation,” she regretted.
As a reminder, Houria Aouimeur was appointed in 2019 to head the DUA with the mission of verifying the proper use by administrators and legal representatives of the funds paid by the AGS. The audits carried out by the firms E & Y then Advolis led to a criminal complaint from the AGS (which is an employers’ association) and Unédic.
Criminal complaint
Things turned sour in 2022 following internal audits of DUA purchases and markets. According to Unédic, the checks requested from the PWC firm to shed light on past contracts in particular revealed serious dysfunctions and breaches of internal procedures, leading to the dismissal of Houria Aouimeur and her action before the Industrial Tribunal.
The decision of the Industrial Court a priori reinforces the argument of Unédic for whom this case has nothing to do with the criminal complaint, contrary to what the entourage of the former director of the DUA-AGS claimed. Clearly, his dismissal would aim to prevent justice from shedding light on the alleged embezzlement of certain administrators or legal agents.
Confrontation canceled
Civil party in the case, the National Council of Judicial Administrators and Judicial Agents, highlights the strict controls to which the profession is subject to denounce unfounded accusations. “The AGS, weighed down by internal quarrels, has been dysfunctioning extremely seriously for four years […] So we are looking for a scapegoat, but the scapegoat is fed up and he will defend himself,” its president, Frédéric Abitbol, warned in February in an interview with Les Echos.
Things could have been clarified at the beginning of September during a confrontation organized by judge Vincent Lemonier, in charge of the investigation, but canceled at the last moment by the AGS, we learned from consistent sources. Since the departure of Houria Aouimeur, internal checks at the DUA have also called into question the amounts of the alleged misappropriations on certain files pointed out in the complaint, without calling into question its basis, we add.
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