The Paris Court of Appeal on Friday deliberated its decision on September 30 in the trial of several former managers of France Telecom for institutional moral harassment, after a series of employee suicides in the 2000s. requested on appeal a one-year prison sentence including six months suspended and a fine of 15,000 euros against the former CEO of the group from 2005 to 2010, Didier Lombard, and his former number 2 Louis-Pierre Wenès.
Read alsoSuicides at France Telecom: former leaders sentenced for "moral harassment"
At first instance, they were sentenced in 2019 to one year's imprisonment, including eight months suspended and a fine of 15,000 euros.
A six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros have also been requested against four other former officials tried for complicity.
A policy of “
industrial, collective and methodical moral harassment
”
According to the prosecution, Didier Lombard and Pierre-Louis Wenès "
designed and implemented
" a policy of "
industrial, collective and methodical moral harassment
", by means of "
prohibited methods
", which led to a "
degradation of the working conditions work
" of "
thousands of employees
", some of whom committed suicide.
During 2006, the management of France Telecom, privatized two years earlier, had implemented a personnel policy targeting 22,000 departures and 10,000 transfers via two plans from 2007 to 2010, the period to which the trial relates.
During the trial, the cases of 39 employees were examined: 19 ended their lives, 12 attempted to do so and eight experienced an episode of depression or a work stoppage over the period 2007-2010.
The lawyers for the civil parties denounced the “
lies
” of the former leaders of France Telecom, guilty according to them of having “
designed and implemented
” a policy of massive reduction in staff which led the employees to suicide.
What responsibility of the State?
Didier Lombard's lawyers pleaded for release on Friday, insisting on the successive faults of the State in the France Telecom file.
“
You were wrong Mr Advocate General to say that the State had no responsibility, it has a major responsibility.
He could intervene
, ”said Me Jean Veil.
In his last statements to the court, Didier Lombard reiterated all his emotion at listening to the testimony of certain civil parties.
“
I will be scarred for life
,” he said, sobbing.
