French telecom company Orange convicted over suicides Associated Press•December 20, 2019 1 / 4 France Phone Company Suicides Former France Telecom Chief Executive Didier Lombard arrives at Paris' courthouse in Paris, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019. French telecommunications powerhouse Orange is facing a potentially landmark court ruling Friday on whether it was responsible for dozens of employee suicides or suicide attempts during a painful restructuring.Former France Telecom Chief Executive Didier Lombard arrives at Paris' courthouse (AP Photo/Michel Euler) France's leading phone and internet provider Orange was found guilty Friday of a string of employee suicides and its former CEO was sentenced to prison, in a landmark ruling against a major European telecommunications player. Orange was ordered to pay around 3.5 million euros ($3.8 million) in fines and damages to scores of families, employees and others party to the case, over suicides and other problems in the 2000s while the company was shedding thousands of jobs. Emotion gripped families and friends of those who had killed themselves as judges read out the lengthy verdict — relief, but also renewed grief as they revisited their loss. Orange, which was called France Telecom at the time, is France's first big company to be tried on a charge of institutionalized “collective moral harassment," so the ruling could open up the possibility for other companies to face similar legal challenges. “A verdict for the future,” was the response from labor union CGT. “It is the workers who make a company, who are the heart of its work.” France is one of only a handful of countries in the world able to prosecute companies or employees for such abuses. The company's ex-CEO Didier Lombard was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay 15,000 euros in fines. Six other managers were also sentenced to short prison terms and thousands of euros in fines. All the defendants announced plans to appeal, except for the company itself. They denied responsibility for suicides of people they didn't know. But the court ruled they and the company were guilty of collective moral harassment, saying in its ruling: “The methods used to reach 22,000 job cuts were illegal.” It is difficult for companies in France to carry out mass layoffs because of the country’s worker protections, so France Telecom managers demoted staff or moved them against their will to new site locations. Orange's lawyers said the job cuts were a necessary part of privatization of state-run France Telecom. Orange is still France's dominant telephone company and has operations in 26 countries around Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Its share price did not see significant change after the ruling. Lombard, his former right-hand man Louis-Pierre Wenes and the director of human resources Olivier Barberot were convicted for leading a "policy of destabilization" as they sought to shed thousands of jobs. Four other managers were convicted of complicity. Scores of employees killed themselves amid the restructuring. The trial focused on 39 cases between 2006 and 2009: 19 suicides, 12 suicide attempts and eight cases of serious depression. Other employee suicides couldn't be linked directly and solely with their work. Orange employee Sebastien Crozier choked up after the verdict. “We remember them," said Crozier, of the CFE-CGC trade union. “I saw one of my colleagues die, she threw herself out of a fifth floor window.” For two and a half months, the court listened to the families of the victims and projected letters and photos on a giant screen. One read: “I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom, it's the only cause." On the last day of the trial in July, Wenes said he was "deeply sorry" to “those for whom work was a source of discomfort and suffering. I never wanted that.” Lombard, now 77, admitted in court that he "made a blunder" in 2006 when he said he "wanted employees to leave by the door or by the window." He also admitted to once saying there was "a fashion for suicide in the business." Lombard left his post in 2010. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/french-telecom-company-orange-faces-082700315.html
Did you know that between 1914-1918, 1 out of every 4 French men under the age of 40 was either killed or seriously wounded during WWI. Simply amazing how much the world has changed in the last 100 years - you know you are living in prosperous times when your estate can be awarded monetary damages from your former employer because you decided to kill yourself over a layoff.
While familiar with the WW1 remembrance monuments in French villages, particularly in areas in the South which on the other hand weren´t hit terribly by WW2, and agreeing with your point, I thought that number was an overstatement. Lazy to dig deeper but the french wiki entry about WW1 casualty also includes injury numbers (similar english entry doesn´t), and while it could be more detailed, it seems your are in the right ball park. Totally agree life has become much sweeter in most places in the World https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pertes_humaines_de_la_Premi%C3%A8re_Guerre_mondiale
New times , new ways - passive aggression > aggression > afterlife aggression Honestly, absurd. I think about equivalent for the level of this nonsense ; maybe some restricting laws from China {?} Victim mentality, must be, an unheard concept in those lands. Simple cliche sayings like ,, If you don't like it - change it'' - where does it go. It's like, if im opening business in France, ever, those future employees will take IQ and EI tests right away. We also could add, nests between the floors (like Apple in China) or, buildings with no windows
I read earlier about this, that the suicide rate for employees of said company were roughly in line with national average .
I could see Chinese companies being held accountable for employee suicides due to working conditions. This French company being held accountable over layoffs is bullshit. I feel like we're missing some details here. Quick way to kill domestic industry though
Yes absolutely, working conditions >< layoffs ; two different things. And it's a bs noneless. (there was a vid on youtube, where's it showing those conditions... ) Seriously ? 1-st $1T company. I wouldn't give an approval, either as founder, CEO or board member. Would suggest for the one, who is so positive about these conditions, to make an office for himself/herself, in that space.
The Spanish Flu killed a lot of people in Europe as well. Some have even suggested that it contributed to the end of WW1. In Russia, men born in 1925 were referred to as the lost generation. They were at the height of the draft age during WW2 and 90% of all the men born that year died during the war (1939-1945). Life was hard a hundred years ago. ----- But, if you are going to be held accountable for an employees' death, why would anyone want to establish a business there?
I don´t know where this picture was taken, but must add that it is common in China to see dudes taking a shit in public toilets while leaving the door open. Much less in posh department stores but used to go to the toilets of residence guards/staff while playing tennis, and there was usually one there squatting and sometimes smoking with the door wide open. Heard that was common in friends' office buildings as well