Vooruit gave ex-employee thousands of euros to keep quiet about inappropriate behavior | Instagram VTM NEWS

In May 2021, the woman was groped in intimate places by a male colleague in a café after a wedding party. A day later, the man sends another message via Snapchat: “I was going to say that I would absolutely do it to you. And how. But no one needs to know that.” The victim sounded the alarm at party leadership, but returned to work. In September 2021, things went wrong again. The male colleague sends the victim several messages in which he gives the impression that he is going to kill himself. That same evening, the man causes an accident with his car and ends up, whether consciously or not, against a tree.

In February 2022, the victim has had enough and she officially files a complaint with the external prevention service. On September 19, 2022, she will be fired by party chairman Conner Rousseau, officially because she was no longer functioning properly. The Institute for the Equality of Women and Men wanted to go to court, but the party offered the woman a significant sum of hush money, according to Het Nieuwsblad. According to various sources, this concerns “many thousands of euros” in “additional termination compensation”. The settlement – a written agreement between two parties wishing to end a dispute – was signed by both parties.

Vooruit calls the story in Het Nieuwsblad “incomplete and based on a one-sided version of the facts”. The party does not release details from individual files of employees or former employees, but emphasizes that the dismissal in question is “merely the result of a series of negative evaluations.” According to Vooruit, the response to the report of inappropriate behavior was “caring and correct”. “The person involved has always received the support she requested and the accused has been dismissed. Vooruit has always taken its responsibility.”