I want to be the person who follows the rules — and this thing ends. — Robin Beausejour, U. S. chef for the consul general in Montreal was fired for refusing to go work, into
U. S. CONSU LATE TERMINATES CONTRACT
Achef who has worked at the residence of the United States consul general in Montreal for more than a decade has been fired after refusing to report to work while the city remains in a red zone, the province’s maximum alert level during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robin Beausejour received an email from Consul General Ana Escrogima this week notifying him, among other things, that his contract was being terminated.
A consulate spokesman said on Wednesday: “We do not comment on internal personnel matters.”
As cases of COVID-19 continue to climb in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, new restrictions prohibit visitors from entering the private homes of others. The alert level, announced Sept. 28, began Oct. 1 and will last at least through Oct. 28.
The restrictions do, however, provide for some exceptions that seem primarily intended to help isolated people and the vulnerable in need of care. They permit, for instance, “a single visitor from another address for single individuals,” informal caregivers, individuals “offering services or support” and home repair and maintenance.
It appears, based on emails Beausejour provided to The Gazette, that his and the consul general’s interpretation of his obligations are different.
Social functions at the consular residence are on hold during the pandemic; Beausejour’s job these days is limited to preparing lunch for Escrogima, who took up her post at the end of July, and her husband.
He was unwilling to work during the red alert because he was concerned for his own safety and his wife’s, he said in an interview. “It meant more exposure for me because I’d be shopping more for work during the week.
“I keep reading the numbers are going up — and the government is saying that we should stay home and not enter anyone else’s private home,” said Beausejour, who is 61. “I want to be the person who follows the rules — and this thing ends.”
Escrogima told him in an email that no social visits to the residence are taking place.
“But in terms of in-person work duties and contractual requirements, that continues both at the residence and at the consulate, as long as things can be done while respecting social-distancing guidelines,” she wrote.
The chef ’s kitchen workspace is in the basement of the residence, where the maid also has a work area. When they are not busy with their tasks, Beausejour said, the two share a desk. If he could not have the maid “to my home as a guest,” he asked Escrogima in an Oct. 4 email, “how is it justified working together?”
Escrogima responded on Oct. 6 that it had been her plan to stagger their schedules so that Beausejour and the maid would not be in the house at the same time, or in contact with her or her husband.
Quebec’s red alert announcement says specifically that services and support in a residence are permitted, she added.
She said she had tried her “very best” to accommodate Beausejour’s schedule and preferences, but that communication is also a part of his job and she found his “tone and approach” unacceptable — and that he should consider his contract terminated.
“I am more upset than mad,” he said. “It bothers me as a citizen.”
Escrogima’s predecessor as U. S. consul general, William Thomas, was still in the post when a partial provincial lockdown early in the pandemic closed all but essential services from mid-march through May; Beausejour was paid for that time, but did not go in to work at the residence.
Thomas, who left in early July, “was concerned both with his own health and with mine,” he said.
Beausejour, who has worked in the kitchens of large downtown hotels including the Fairmount Queen Elizabeth and the Vogue and at the former Bice restaurant, was the full-time chef for six years at the consul general’s residence; he worked for three consuls general and there was “never a problem with any of them.”
His job was eliminated for a time by budget cuts; five years ago he returned part time and worked for two consuls general: “Again, never a problem.”
He started to work for Escrogima in August and, until recently, there had been no issues, he said.
She returned at the end of September from a trip to the United States and is in quarantine until next week, Beausejour said. She had asked if he’d work during her quarantine but didn’t insist when he refused “because I didn’t want to expose myself to risk.”
Before her return, he prepared meals for the first several days of her quarantine and left them in the fridge downstairs.
I am more upset than mad. It bothers me as a citizen.