France - work pressure suicides

France Télécom employee suicides on the increase

Article published on the 2009-09-12 Latest update 2009-09-12 15:11 TU

Xavier Darcos, French Labour Minister is set to tackle work-stress-related suicides.
(Photo: Marc Verney/RFI/2005)

A 32 year-old employee at the France Télécom firm died on Friday when she threw herself out of a window on the 4th floor of her office building in Paris. The French Labour minister, Xavier Darcos, is according to French news agency, AFP, going to meet the CEO of France Télécom early next week

The young woman worked in client relations, in the debt-collection service of Orange, said a CFE-CGC trade union representative. He said she had shortly before been part of discussions on re-organising services. Police and medical sources said she was taken to hospital in a serious condition, and the company later announced she hed died.

Two days earlier, another France Télécom employee tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the stomach during a meeting just after he'd learned his post was being scrapped. These add to a number of other suicides within the last 18 months at the telecoms firm. The trade unions say there have been 22 employee-suicides at France Télécom since February 2008. The firm employees about 100,000 people in France.

The unions are calling on the government to take "strong action" as the main shareholder and the biggest employer in the group. They say that management has evidently not been able to do enough to reassure workers whose company is undergoing restructuring. In concrete terms, the unions want, amongst other things, a solid early retirement plan. The trade unions have been highly critical of the extra pressure put on workers to take voluntary redundancy. 22,000 people have left in the past three years, and 5,000 have been taken on.

After protests at the company on Thursday, the management agreed to freeze until 31 October 2009 any more transfers within the group. The firm is also proposing to begin negotiations focussing on stress, on 18 September and to bring in 100 human resources aides, as well as more work doctors.

Given the alarming recurrence of these suicides and suicide attempts in the workplace, the French Labour minister, Xavier Darcos, is according to French news agency, AFP, going to meet the CEO of France Télécom early next week to discuss what action to take to prevent more employees resorting to such desperate acts. The management has asked co-workers to watch out for signs of depression and suicidal tendencies among colleagues.