The entire workers at Thermal Ceramics, an English company based in France, have gone on strike because their British boss can't speak the native tongue.
The 184 French workers, who have staged an uprising with cries of ‘Anglo-Saxon imperialism’, are holding walkouts every day because discussions over their wages were getting lost in translation.
“We say ‘hello’ in French but then communication stops. Every meeting is an ordeal,” the Daily Mail quoted Thierry Juvin, who represents the workers in Saint-Marcellin-en-Forez, in the Loire Valley, as saying.
He said workers at the factory, which makes ceramic fibre insulation, wanted to discuss increasing their salaries and improving working conditions, but it was proving impossible.
“We have to have someone who translates everything into English, and then anything our English boss says has to be translated into French,” said Juvin.
“This makes dialogue extremely slow, if not impossible,” he added.
Juvin said protests have been held most days since bosses who could only speak English began managing them earlier this year.
“Our former director left in January and his replacement is an acting director abroad,” he said.
“He is English and does not speak any French. So we cannot communicate with him.”
“We haven't withdrawn our labour for twenty-three years. Maybe this is because we could speak to our bosses,” Juvin added.