Yasmine Motarjemi, a food-safety specialist who had worked at the World Health Organization, joined Nestlé’s headquarters in Vevey in 2000 as corporate food-safety manager and assistant vice-president. After a 2003 parental complaint, she sought the withdrawal of baby biscuits and, from 2006, pressed for an audit into the toxicity of baby products. The source does not establish that Nestlé manufactured the melamine-contaminated milk implicated in China’s 2009 food-poisoning crisis, but it says that crisis affected 300,000 babies and killed 13 children. The director associated with the offending products was subsequently promoted and became Motarjemi’s manager.
According to the account, the manager removed Motarjemi’s responsibilities and assigned her menial work; Nestlé fired her in 2010. She filed a complaint in March 2011 with the court of the canton of Vaud, alleging moral and psychological harassment. On January 7, 2020, the civil court of appeal recognized the grounds for harassment and said she had been intimidated in an “insidious manner.” In 2023, Nestlé withdrew its appeal and paid 2 million Swiss francs, 100,000 francs in legal costs, and one symbolic franc in moral damages. Motarjemi received the GUE/NGL whistleblower award in 2019 and was nominated for Switzerland’s Prix Courage in 2020.
