Too many employee suicides at France Telecom: company and CEO convicted of 'moral mobbing'

France Télécom, its former CEO Didier Lombard, and other former executives were convicted of "institutional moral mobbing" against staff, a decade after at least 19 employees committed suicide, some leaving letters accusing the telecommunications giant. The French court heard the cases of 39 civil plaintiffs, including 19 employees of the company (listed on the Paris stock exchange and renamed Orange in 2013) who committed suicide, 12 who attempted suicide, and others who suffered from depression. All those convicted will appeal, announced Jean Veil, the CEO's lawyer, accusing the judges of "pure demagoguery." Lombard, CEO between 2005 and 2010, former number two Louis Pierre Wenès, and former human resources director Olivier Barberot were sentenced to one year in prison, with eight months suspended, and a €15 fine for a policy of "relentless" cuts in 2007-2008. The defendants will jointly pay €3 million in damages to the plaintiffs, former employees, and the victims' families. At the heart of the trial, unprecedented in France, is the accusation of "institutional moral mobbing" spread from the company's top management to its employees. In July 2009, a technician, Michel Deparis, committed suicide and left a letter: "I'm killing myself because of France Telecom. It's the only cause," denouncing a "management in a climate of terror." "I believe this decision will set a precedent," commented Sylvie Topaloff, lawyer for the Sud union and several civil plaintiffs. Witnesses in court described workers falling into depression due to job changes and forced transfers, wage cuts, emails urging them to resign, and more. The trial focused on the years 2007-2010 and on reorganization plans that, over three years, aimed to cut 100 jobs and implement 22 redundancies at the 10-employee company. France Telecom was privatized in 2004. In 2006, Lombard told company executives that the cuts had to happen, whether it was "the window or the door." To the judges, the company always described the resignations as voluntary. The ruling described them as "forced cuts," calling the voluntary nature of the resignations a "facade." The three former managers, according to the judges, "put pressure on management," which reverberated "by creating an anxiety-inducing climate in the daily lives of all" workers: they "devised" a "concerted plan to worsen working conditions to accelerate their permanent exits." The defendants were acquitted for the period after 2008. In court, among the relatives of those who committed suicide was the family of Rémy Louvradoux, who set himself on fire in a France Telecom parking lot. "The other Didier Lombards, in other public or private companies, must know that if they continue with managerial policies that push people into depression or suicide," they will "be brought to court and convicted," said his son, Raphaël Louvradoux.