Flemish student loses her job due to drunk Belgian minister
What a lovely bit of gossip. A Flemish student living and working in New York blogged about a drunk Belgian minister and got fired for it.
The story goes that Nathalie Lubbe Bakker who until recently worked as a barmaid in New York City to pay for her room and board described the loud, lewd and drunk performance of Belgian defense minister Pieter de Crem at her bar in detail on her blog. Then, after some discussion between a representative of the minister and her boss she got fired without any explanation. Lubbe Bakker asked and heard from the defense minister’s representative that the minister wasn’t even supposed to be in New York as his meetings were all cancelled. That last bit was immediately picked up by the Belgian parliament and has been fueling the Belgian media and talk shows as of late. Lubbe Bakker asked the respentative, “didn’t you know beforehand that your meetings in New York were cancelled?”, “oh yes”, answered the representative, “but you know, it’s so quiet in Brussels at the moment, nothing is happening so we’d thought we’d come to NYC since we’ve never been here before”.
Yes, this is not really about the Netherlands, but I was weak. I will repent soon.
UPDATE: The girl is Dutch and lives in Antwerp. I have repented.
(Link: telegraaf.nl)
Lubbe Bakker really sounds like a Dutch name, not a Flemish one.
So the man who works at the top levels of government, traveled at citzens’ expense from Brussels to New York for no reason relating to his work, instead spent his time drinking in a bar, and got the waitress fired presumably to cover his tracks.
He is not only unethical. He is stupid. If instead, he had given Nathalie Lubbe a nice tip and asked her not to tell her friends, they’d both be better off.
Nathalie may have a cause of action. She should ask for her job back. While she can be fired for no reason, she can’t be fired for an illegal one. Pieter de Crem request may just be a reason that is not permitted.
She apparently is trying to get her job back or a job I would imagine and some people on Facebook are backing her up.
Did you see this?
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/11/30/moving-forest-by-nl-architects/
Yes, a while back, and a friend took pictures.