Can’t You Just Fire Me? Man Paid to Do Nothing Wanted $2 Million
- Executive sued Lafarge over his exclusion from buyout
- French courts ruled that he missed out by a matter of days
This article is for subscribers only.
An executive who was paid about $18,000 a month by LafargeHolcim Ltd. to do nothing failed in his suit to force the cement maker to fire him with a payout worth more than $2 million. Timing was his undoing.
When his employer Lafarge SA announced in 2015 a staff-buyout program as part of its merger with Holcim Ltd., Antoine Zenone hoped he could get a golden handshake. But the company told him he wasn’t eligible and French judges have said “non” -- three times in a row.