Page 9 - aruba-today-20190507

A9
WORLD NEWS Tuesday 7 May 2019

French telecom giant Orange on trial over staff suicides

By NICOLAS VAUX-MON- ny" plus "management by
TAGNY terror."
Associated Press "I'm taking my life because
PARIS (AP) — The toll is of my work at France Tele-
shocking: 19 suicides, 12 com. It's the only reason,"
suicide attempts and eight the note said.
cases of serious depres- A month earlier, Christel,
sion among employees at 37, slashed her veins in an
France's main telephone apparent bid to kill herself
and internet company in front of two superiors
over three years. who told her hours earlier
A long-awaited trial began she would be transferred.
Monday in Paris accusing In March 2009, 52-year-old
the telecom giant Orange Herve was preparing to
and seven former or current jump from an office win-
managers of moral harass- dow but the noise he was
ment and other charges. making drew others to his
The company was called rescue.
France Telecom at the time Jean-Michel, a father of
of the suicides. three children, was 53
The case initially involved when he threw himself in
39 employees with mental French unions members demonstrate at the start of the trial of French group France Telecom in front of a train on July 2,
health problems, including front of the Paris' courthouse, Monday, May 6, 2019. 2008, while on the phone
the almost half who killed Associated Press with two union delegates.
themselves. France Telecom, once a
Another 126 people asked rector Olivier Barberot and moral harassment. chief in 2010, has denied all state-owned monopoly,
Monday to join the case, former deputy executive In France, moral harass- the charges. He attributed transformed into a private
saying they also were dam- director Louis-Pierre Wenes. ment can be punished by the suicides, attempted sui- company in the 2000s.
aged by what they call a They spoke briefly one by a year in prison and a fine cides and cases of depres- Lombard launched a re-
culture of unsustainable one Monday at the trial, of 15,000 euros ($16,790). sion to "local difficulties with structuring plan aimed at
pressure as Orange was un- which is the largest to date Orange itself is also on trial, no links to each other" and shedding 22,000 jobs, but
dergoing job cuts and re- in France for moral harass- and the court could order no relation to the compa- most employees were still
structuring a decade ago. ment on a company-wide the company to grant ad- ny's job cuts at the time. considered civil servants
Unions say France's big scale. ditional damages to each The indictment lists the em- and so were protected
companies haven't learned The defendants are sus- civil party in the case. ployees who took their lives from layoffs.
any lessons from what hap- pected of having "degrad- An investigation into the or tried to, some on the job. As it sought to reduce staff,
pened at France Telecom, ed work conditions of per- wave of employee suicides Michel, 50, left a note about the indictment says the
and about 200 activists sonnel that risked hurting between 2007 and 2010 his decision to end his life company imposed "exces-
demonstrated outside the their rights and dignity, al- was opened following a on July 29, 2009, according sive and intrusive control"
courthouse Monday to tering the physical or men- complaint from the Sud to the prosecutor's report. on employees, assigned
urge a conviction. tal health (of personnel), or union. At the time, Lom- Michel's note denounced workers to demoralizing
The defendants include the compromising their profes- bard allegedly referred to "the permanent sense of ur- tasks, failed to provide train-
former president of France sional future." the deaths as "the fashion." gency, overwork, absence ing, isolated staff and used
Telecom, Didier Lombard, Four other officials are sus- Lombard, who was re- of training, the total disor- "intimidation maneuvers or
former human resources di- pected of complicity in placed as France Telecom ganization of the compa- threats and pay cuts."q