An Italian TV presenter has sued her bosses over a male colleague’s ‘noisy’ fart and burping.
According to Mail Online, the scandal began when Dania Mondini, an anchor-woman for Italy’s national broadcaster RAI, lodged a formal complaint against one of her colleagues over his ‘repeated and malodorous bodily emissions’.
She also said her colleague, who has not been named publicly in the Italian press, would often burp while they were at work, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Mondini demanded that she be moved to a different room to get away from the man’s poor hygiene, but she said her managers insisted that she stay put.
According to her, this was part of an intimidation campaign against her that stemmed from a professional rivalry.
Instead of being moved away from the man, she claims that her demands led to her being bullied by her managers. She says she was effectively demoted, handed ‘banal’ news reading jobs, and was on the end of verbal abuse.
According to Pledge Times, the company argued that the man’s flatulence was down to a medical condition, rather than because he or anyone else found it humorous. Therefore, he was not seen as being at fault.
However, Mondini says that she was treated unfairly by her bosses because she complained about the issue. She says she was denied promotions and harassed.
According to Italian media, prosecutors last week opened a stalking case against five men that she has accused of harassing her at work.
The report named deputy director Filippo Gaudenzias, as well as Marco Betello, Pietro Felice Damosso, Andrea Montanari and Costanza Crescimbeni in case. All five held top positions in the public service network at the time of the complaint.
The Telegraph reported that two other journalists working for the national broadcaster also complained about the unnamed man’s flatulence.
Managers are said to have threaten to fire those that complained, with one accused of saying: ‘Any journalist who refuses to be in a room with him should be kicked up the a*se,’ the newspaper said.
The case has now dragged on for four years, beginning in 2018 when Mondini took the network to court. It has come to light again as new details have emerged.
