Three French executives convicted in the suicides of 35 of their workers

Authored by smh.com.au and submitted by JimmyTheGinger

Paris: Three former executives of a French telecommunications giant have been found guilty of creating a corporate culture so toxic that 35 of their employees were driven to suicide in the mid-2000s. The charge in the historic case: "harcelement moral institutionnel" or "institutional moral harassment".

The ruling from a Paris criminal court caps a months-long trial and years-long saga that has spurred protests and highlighted issues of labour relations and workplace conditions in a country with a sometimes contentious relationship to capitalism.

Former France Telecom chief executive Didier Lombard arrives at a Paris court, where Orange was found responsible for dozens of employee suicides or suicide attempts. Credit:AP

The company, France Telecom − which used to be state-owned and is now known as Orange, one of France's largest corporations − was fined $120,000, the maximum penalty. Its ex-chief executive, Didier Lombard, was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $23,000, along with his former second-in-command and head of human resources.

It is the first time a French company of Orange's size has been held to account for this type of workplace bullying.

Maeln on December 23rd, 2019 at 15:07 UTC »

I think this need a bit context for most since it is a very specific case that don't reflect the overall French work culture.

Basically, France Telecom was our national, state owned, Telecom company. Worker there were under the statut of government worker which give a lot of advantage. There was a culture focused on good services instead of profit also.

All of this changed when it was privatized (becoming what is know now as Orange). The upper management was pressured by the shareholder to maximise profit.

This completely changed the culture that a lot of worker were used to. Prompting a lot of anger.

But worst of all, they wanted to get rid asap of every worker under a government statut, because they cost a lot. So they deliberatly trained manager to make the live of worker horrendous. And they did it knowing exactly what they were doing and what were going to be the consequence.

Having worked for another state company that was privatized, I can tell you its a common pattern for privatization. But never to those length...

AngryGoose on December 23rd, 2019 at 14:17 UTC »

They didn't really describe the work environment.

RentalGore on December 23rd, 2019 at 13:12 UTC »

Suicide in French companies is apparently more common that I thought. I worked in Paris for a large French company, the week I arrived someone walked off the roof of our building.