The manager of the Sofitel in Cannes has won €115,000 in damages after suing the company for firing her because she failed to smile at the customers.

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Nadine Freville, who had been working as manager since 2000, was fired in 2004 for having an “inhospitable attitude towards the clientele”, as well as psychologically abusing a trainee and making defamatory insinuations against the director.

But the industrial tribunal of Cannes, eight years later, ruled her dismissal was “devoid of a real or serious cause”, and ordered the hotel to pay her €115,000 in damages.

Freville, who was also the head of the hotel’s union, had reportedly had several run-ins with her manager, and even filed a complaint against him for psychological abuse.

One month after the complaint was made, Freville was sacked.

The hotel will not be appealing the court’s decision.