Former Orange bosses go on trial over spate of staff suicides in the 2000s
Former executives at French telecoms giant Orange went on trial today over a series of staff suicides a decade ago.
Former chief executive Didier Lombard, six other former executives and Orange itself have been accused of moral harassment in the first trial of its kind on a company-wide scale.
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Prosecutors claim that between April 2008 and June 2010, when it was called France Telecom, there were 18 suicides and 13 attempted suicides by employees.
They allege the suicides were triggered by a deep restructuring plan following the company’s privatisation.
The former state monopoly implemented a plan to cut 22,000 jobs and redeploy 10,000 workers in a four year period up to 2010.
An Orange spokesman declined to comment on the beginning of the trial but told Reuters a lot of work had been under current chief executive Stephane Richard to improve corporate culture.
Lombard, who stepped down as chief executive in 2010, has denied any wrongdoing.
An investigation was launched following a complaint from the Sud union, whose records showed 30 suicides in two years, including a woman who threw herself from a window and a man who stabbed himself in the stomach during a staff meeting.
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Prosecutors claim the company imposed “excessive and intrusive control” on staff, gave workers demoralising tasks and used “intimidation manoeuvres or threats and pay cuts" to make them quit.
The trial, in Paris, is expected to last two months.