The Paris prosecutor's office will open an investigation "within a few days" into suicides by France Telecom employees, reports AFP, citing a radio statement by a lawyer for the SUD trade union, Jean-Paul Teissonniere. He said the case will be assigned to an investigating judge of the Paris public health division. In February, a report from the work inspectorate found the operator was potentially guilty of putting workers at risk of serious health problems due to its organisational changes, and of employing management methods likened to harassment. Le Parisien reports that according to its sources, the charge of putting others' lives in danger will not be used, but that that of harassment will. According to unions, there were 35 suicides in 2008 and 2009, another 11 since the start of this year. As well as the company itself, three executives are targeted by the case, former CEO Didier Lombard, former head of French operations Louis-Pierre Wenes and human resources director Olivier Barberot, writes Le Parisien. SUD representative Patrick Ackermann told the newspaper that this "first victory" does not mean that there will necessarily be an indictment, but now the union will call on other labour organisations, victims' families and occupational health doctors to initiate joint legal action. In March, Les Echos reported that the labour inspectorate had recommended that the public prosecutor of Besancon level a charge of involuntary homicide by negligence against the company in the case of a worker who committed suicide last August. The operator was accused of having transferred the worker to a repair unit without training him for the job or considering the psychosocial risks of the move. The Besancon prosecutor subsequently opened an investigation.
