A TV appearance that is expensive. A member of the famous band Tragédie (renamed several times since), the singer AZ has just seen his dismissal from the SNCF confirmed by the Lyon Court of Appeal. And this, following an appearance in the C8 show "Touche pas à mon poste", presented by Cyril Hanouna, in June 2017, as spotted by the media L'Informer. Controller by day, singer by night, he had come to present, alongside his two friends, the band's new single - at the time called T30 - called "Tu n'aurais jamais deur".
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The problem was that Hazdine Souiri, AZ's real name, had declared himself on sick leave that day... Following an administrative investigation, he was subsequently dismissed from the SNCF in October 2017, after seven years with the railway company. He had challenged his dismissal in 2018, which had rejected his claim in 2020. Hazdine Souiri - who joined Tragédie in 2015 and therefore did not experience the band's heyday in the early 2000s - had appealed against this ruling.
In its decision, handed down at the end of September, the Lyon Court of Appeal considered that the controller-singer "committed a fault justifying his dismissal", by not seeking the authorisation of the SNCF management to combine "his artistic professional activity with his main professional activity". Contrary to what the singer had claimed, this artistic activity "does not constitute a voluntary activity," the Court of Appeal said.
Read also"Turn off this show": a TikToker traps Cyril Hanouna live in "Touche pas à mon poste"
Concerts during his sick leave
According to the company's investigation report, the conclusions of which are cited by the court, Hazdine Souiri had taken the habit of taking sick leave to perform his concerts and recordings. "The dates of your concerts and recordings, including abroad, publicly available on various social networks several weeks in advance (...) almost always correspond to periods of absence due to illness. However, it appears that these concerts are never cancelled due to your state of health and your presence can even be observed (videos, photos, comments)," the document says, citing for example a tour in China in November 2016, a concert in March 2017 in Belgium announced in the local press or another tour in China in May 2017 announced on social networks.
On the other hand, the court ruled in favour of AZ's brother, presented as the manager of the T30 group and also a controller at the SNCF, from which he had been dismissed in 2017 for the same reason. In its decision, the Lyon Court of Appeal deemed the company's decision "unjustified" and ordered it to pay 12,000 euros in damages.