More than ten years after a wave of employee suicides, the former leaders of France Telecom will be retried from May 11 to early July 2022, after being convicted of moral harassment in 2019, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday December 1. .
Read alsoSuicides at France Telecom: the former leaders condemned for "moral harassment"
France Telecom, the first CAC 40 company condemned for
institutional “
moral harassment
”, had not appealed, its condemnation to the maximum fine of 75,000 euros is therefore final.
Its former leaders, the former CEO Didier Lombard and the former number 2 Louis-Pierre Wenès, will be retried.
The former HRD Olivier Barberot, who had also appealed, "
withdrew on September 24,
" his lawyer said on Wednesday.
The appeal trial will be held from May 11, for a full day and two half-days per week in May, then two full days per week thereafter, until "
early July
" 2022, according to a schedule set Wednesday during an interim hearing.
On December 20, 2019, the Paris Criminal Court had, in an unprecedented judgment, sanctioned institutional and collective moral harassment, "
having targeted several tens of thousands
" of people.
The judges had sentenced the three former leaders to one year in prison, including eight months suspended sentence, and a fine of 15,000 euros for their "
preeminent role
" in the establishment of a policy of downsizing "
until -boutiste
”over the period 2007-2008.
Four other officials retried
The court considered that they had put "
pressure on the management
", which "
passed on this pressure
" on the agents, and put in place "
a concerted plan to degrade the working conditions of the agents in order to speed up their work. departures
”, a policy which“
created an anxiety-provoking climate
”. Four other officials, sentenced to four months in prison and a 5,000 euros fine, will be retried for complicity in moral harassment.
The case dates back more than ten years.
France Telecom, which became Orange in 2013, was making headlines in the media because of suicides among its employees.
In July 2009, Michel Deparis, a Marseille technician had ended his days by criticizing in a letter the "
management by terror
".
“
I commit suicide because of France Telecom.
This is the only cause,
”he wrote.
Two months later, a first complaint was filed by the South union.
Read alsoSuicides at France Telecom: "I can't help it" proclaims former CEO Didier Lombard
The court had examined in detail the cases of thirty-nine employees: nineteen committed suicide, twelve attempted to do so and eight suffered an episode of depression or a work stoppage.
