An employee of Pizza Hut in France was reportedly dismissed after being subjected to a tirade of homophobic abuse including questions to colleagues asking: “Is he a faggot?”

The 23-year-old employee, only given the alias of Lucas by the report on humanite.fr, endured eight months of the abuse, during which his manager continually looked for reasons to discipline him, and eventually was reprimanded for taking five minutes longer than usual to make a delivery.

The report states that he was called a “dirty faggot”, by the manager and other employees, but that he did not respond out of a hope that the abuse would stop.

It notes that he was in early February prescribed antidepressants after being disciplined for failing to quickly answer the phone during a shift.

Going on, the report suggests that Pizza Hut was asked by a staff representative in a January meeting whether it is routine for management to ask staff about their sexual orientation to which the company replied that it is not, but declined to look into the matter further.

Lucas apparently wants to remain as a delivery boy for the pizza delivery giant, but despite union involvement, the discrepancy remains unresolved.

He says: “I thought the management had serious reasons to discipline its employees.” Unions are in talks over whether to support action over this occurrence.