After a sensational series of suicides at the former French telecommunications giant France Télécom, later renamed Orange, the final verdicts were handed down on Tuesday against several ex-managers for institutional bullying.
The incidents took place more than fifteen years ago. The then managers implemented a program to cut more than 20,000 jobs across the group by 2009. They are said to have deliberately driven employees to despair to get them to quit. The years-long process involved approximately 40 employees, 19 of whom committed suicide.
“Management through terror”
One employee wrote in his suicide note that the company had “management by terror.” An employee threw himself in front of a train, a woman threw herself out of her office window, a technician rammed a knife into his stomach – these and other terrible stories became known at the time.
In the first instance, former boss Didier Lombard was sentenced to four months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. In 2019, his deputy Louis-Pierre Wenès and former personnel manager Olivier Barberot were also sentenced to four months in prison. On appeal, the sentences were increased to one year in prison with probation. Now the country’s highest court has upheld the guilty verdicts. The appeal was rejected and the verdicts against the top managers for institutional bullying were therefore legally binding, the Court of Cassation in Paris announced.
Fine of 75,000 euros against the company
In France, it was the first time that a company of this size and its management staff had been brought to justice for harassment. Orange already accepted the maximum fine of 75,000 euros imposed on the company in 2019.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
