The Orange S.A. suicides, or the France Telecom trial, refers to a French court case against the company France Telecom (which became Orange S.A. in 2013) regarding employee harassment. The cases, over the period 2006 to 2011, reached their climax in 2009 in a period nicknamed "the suicide crisis" – which amounted to 35 suicides in 2008 and 2009 according to the unions and management. [1] [2]
The NExT plan was a recovery plan for the company which aimed, among other things, at firing 22,000 of the 120,000 employees in three years. The NExT plan was rather drastic. [1] In 2004, 4,000 employees were trained for ten days, in order to implement the NExT plan on the ground: reducing the workforce was a priority, new management techniques were introduced, and the method was to degrade working conditions in order to psychologically push some of the employees to leave voluntarily, thus reducing the amount of compensation which would have to be paid. [3]
The SUD (Union syndicale Solidaires) and the CFE-CGC (Confédération française de l'encadrement - Confédération générale des cadres) trade unions filed a legal complaint on 15 December 2009 (which was registered in March 2010) against France Telecom and Didier Lombard, chairman and CEO, Olivier Barberot, Director of Human Relations and Louis-Pierre Wenès, Executive Vice President.
This was the first trial of a CAC 40 company for employee harassment. [1] The main defendant was Didier Lombard, chairman and CEO at the time. [1] The case "became a symbol of suffering at work". [4] On 6 January 2015, the investigation closed in on the wave of suicides, which paved the way for recognition, by the courts, of institutional harassment. [5]
In July 2016, the Paris public prosecutor's office requested that the company Orange, as a legal entity, and six managers be referred to the criminal court for harassment: Didier Lombard, the group's former director, Louis-Pierre Wenes, its former number 2, Olivier Barberot, the former head of human resources, and four managers for complicity. [6] The CFE-CGC, for its part, called for the qualification of manslaughter instead of harassment. This represented the first time that a large company was prosecuted in France for this offence.
In June 2018, the courts decided to bring France Telecom, its former CEO Didier Lombard and his second-in-command Louis-Pierre Wenès and Oliver Barberot to trial for harassment in 2019.
Thirty-nine individual cases (19 suicides, 12 attempted suicides, 8 depressions or work stoppages) were discussed at the trial in 2019.
In December 2019, Orange, formerly France Telecom, its former CEO Didier Lombard and six other managers and executives were convicted of "employee harassment", almost ten years after the crisis during which several dozen employees died by suicide. [4]
In his trial on his human resources management policy at Orange, Didier Lombard was sentenced to one year in prison, eight months of which were suspended, and a fine of the Group, renamed Orange in 2013, must pay a fine of 75,000 euros. Didier Lombard decided to appeal. [7]
In September 2022 the conviction of Lombard and three other executives was upheld by the Paris Court of Appeal. [8]
Martin Ledun's book Les Visages écrasés (2011), and Vincent Farasse's play Un Incident, deal with similar fictional cases. [9] Sandra Lucbert's novel Personne ne sorti les fusils (2020) attacks the "language of capitalism" used by France Telecom managers. Nicolas Silhol's film Corporate (2017) was imagined as a result of this case. [10]
Orange S.A., formerly known as France Télécom S.A. is a French multinational telecommunications company. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France and 59,000 people worldwide. In 2023, the group had a revenue of €43 billion. The company's head office is located in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the southwestern suburban area of Paris.
The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales, more commonly known as ESSEC Business School or simply ESSEC, is a business school and grande école based in France. Founded in 1907, its principal campus is located in Cergy in the île-de-France region, but also has locations in La Défense, Rabat, and Singapore.
Didier Lombard is a French businessman. Between February 2005 and March 2010 he was chairman and CEO of France Télécom. In 2010 he resigned as CEO, retaining the chairmanship. Since 2012, he has been under indictment for criminal acts of "moral harassment" for abusive human resource policies during his leadership at France Télécom alleged to have caused a number of suicides, leading to a criminal trial in May 2019.
Ankama is a French entertainment company headquartered in Roubaix, France, focused on the design of massive multiplayer online role playing games. The company is also active in publishing, animation and Web development. It was founded by Anthony Roux, Camille Chafer and Emmanuel Darras. The company name comes from their own names : ANthony, KAmille, MAnu.
The Corps des télécommunications was a French Technical "grand corps de l'Etat". It is formed of the State Engineers of the Telecommunications.
Raymond Couderc is a French politician, and a former member of the Senate of France, who represented the Department of Hérault. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement, which is a part of the European People's Party.
Patrick Balkany is a French politician.
Stéphane Richard is a French businessman who has been serving as chief executive officer and chairman of the worldwide mobile phone network Orange since 2011. In December 2021, he resigned as both chairman and chief executive of the group.
Nathalie Odzierejko, better known as Natoo, is a French Internet celebrity, vlogger and actress of Polish descent. She is also a member of the production collectives "Studio Bagel" and "Le Latte Chaud". In December 2016 her YouTube channel surpassed 5 million subscribers. She is regarded as one of the first French celebrities to become a "youth icon" due to YouTube.
Anne-France Brunet is a French politician of Renaissance served as a member of the French National Assembly from 2017 to 2022, representing the department of Loire-Atlantique.
The Ligue du LOL(in French), or Laughing out Loud League, is a private Facebook group created in 2009 by Vincent Glad, a French journalist. The group was initially composed of mainly young journalists, and later added communication professionals, most of them being men and Parisians. Some of its members are accused of coordinated and grouped harassment, mainly of women but also of men. An antisemitic and homophobic dimension was also noted.
Christian Didier came to public attention after 8 June 1993 as the assassin of René Bousquet, a friend of French President François Mitterrand, who had served as a senior police official under Vichy France, which administered the southern half of France during the German occupation. Directly after the killing, Didier telephoned a succession of newspaper editors in order to organise an ad hoc press conference, meaning that the police had no difficulty in locating him.
Timothé Nadim is a French anti school bullying activist and musician.
Leïla Chaibi is a French politician. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019 on the list of La France Insoumise. She presides over La France Insoumise’s delegation in the European Parliament.
Clémentine Sarlat is a French journalist specialising in rugby, athletics, and tennis.
Mava Chou was a Swiss YouTuber.
Patricia Chagnon is a French member of the European parliament since July 2022.
Jonathan Destin, was a French writer. A victim of harassment, he attempted suicide on 7 February 2011. He survived but suffered visible injuries, and later wrote about his torments.
Serge Dufoulon was a French post-modern sociologist. He was also a blogger and former columnist on the RMC program Les Grandes Gueules. He primarily carried out research on the sociology of work, as well as immigration and the environment.
Anne Bouillon is a French lawyer born in 1972 specializing in women's rights. She is registered with the bar of Nantes. According to GQ she was the most powerful lawyer in France in 2019.
