Orange is the target of government ire for having put in place a work policy from 2007 that "destabilises" employees, Le Figaro reported. A total 35 salaried workers at Orange committed suicide between 2008 and 2009. Ex-CEO Didier Lombard and other executives have come under fire as a result. After a 7-year investigation, the Paris public prosecutor is calling on Lombard to appear in court and answer to the accusation that management designed employee policy in order to accelerate departures from the company.
Orange is the first company in France's leading index the CAC 40 to be indicted for moral harassment. Aside from Lombard, the prosecutor also called Louis-Pierre Wenes, the former number 2 at the company; Olivier Barberot, ex-human resources head; and four others to answer to charges. In total, seven people are being being referred to criminal court, with the judge expected to give a ruling in a couple of weeks. The executives face up to two years in prison and a EUR 30,000 fine if found guilty. The CFE-CGC union of Orange wants the company and Lombard to be charged with "involuntary homicide".
In total, 39 victims are cited in the case for the period from 2006 to 2011: 19 committed suicide, 12 tried and eight became severely depressed. According to the unions and the company, 35 took their life from 2008 to 2009. Lombard at the time said suicides came to be seen as a fashion, causing general outrage. Facing investigators, Orange and some executives have denied the existence of workforce reduction targets, presenting the restructuring as a rescue operation for the company and not related to the degradation of the social climate.
The prosecution said testimony and internal documents show the contrary, adding that the objectives to reduce the workforce had become an end in itself, irrespective of the means put in effect to achieve the outcome. The prosecution cited repeated calls for departure, forced moves, work overload or lack of work and all sorts of reorganisations. "Managers were trained to discourage their teams, their bonuses depended on it. Every new departure carried the promise of an increased premium at the end of the year," Le Monde reported.
Lombard left the company in May 2011.
