Former French telecom giant executives could face prison time over staff suicides
French unions members demonstrate at the start of the trial of French group France Telecom in front of the Paris' courthouse, Monday, May 6, 2019. (AP)
Former executives who worked at the French telecom giant Orange are on trial and could face prison time after being accused of moral harassment and other charges.
Orange used to be France Télécom, the country’s main telephone and internet company. The defendants in the trial, which began in May in Paris, are suspected of having “degraded work conditions of personnel that risked hurting their rights and dignity, altering the physical or mental health (of personnel), or compromising their professional future.” Four other officials are suspected of complicity in moral harassment, according to The Associated Press. In France, moral harassment can be punished by a year in prison and a fine of $16,790. The trial is slated to end on Friday, according to The New York Times.
The Times reported at least 35 employees committed suicide after feeling “trapped, betrayed and despairing of ever finding new work in France’s immobile labor market.” An investigation into the wave of employee suicides between 2007 and 2010 was opened following a complaint from the Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques or Sud union.
The indictment stated the company, which sought to reduce staff, imposed “excessive and intrusive control” on employees, assigned workers to demoralizing tasks, failed to provide training, isolated staff and used “intimidation maneuvers or threats and pay cuts.”
France Telecom, which was once a state-owned monopoly, transformed into a private company in the 2000s. Former France Télécom president Didier Lombard, who is on trial, launched a restructuring plan aimed at shedding 22,000 jobs, but most employees were still considered civil servants and were protected from layoffs.
One of the victims who took their own life, Nicolas Grenouville, wrote in a note that he did not like his job, according to The New York Times.
“I can’t stand this job anymore, and France Télécom couldn’t care less,” he wrote shortly before taking his own life. “All they care about is money.”
Remy Louvradoux set himself on fire in front of a France Telecom office in 2011, according to The Times.
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“We loved my father. You killed him. And all for what?” Noémie Louvradoux, said during the trial last week, according to The Guardian. “France Télécom had destroyed his life and left him no way out.”
The Guardian reported Louvradox wrote a letter to the company pleading for change.
“Nothing is being done to face it up to it: suicide remains the only solution,” the letter stated.
The media outlet noted the judges’ verdict will take several weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.