Several former managers of France Telecom – including the CEO and his number 2 – are definitively condemned. The Court of Cassation ruled that “institutional moral harassment” had indeed been carried out in the company, leading to the suicide of several employees. As important as it is, this decision is the culmination of a union fight supported by the expertise of labor specialists. However, the building remains very fragile.
On January 21, 2025, Didier Lombard and Pierre-Louis Wenès, former managers of France Télécom, were definitively sentenced for “institutional moral harassment” to one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. They were prosecuted for the consequences of their reorganization policy between 2006 and 2009, which degraded working conditions and pushed 19 employees to suicide. This judgment, emblematic of suffering at work, is historic. The company, for its part, had not appealed to the Court of Cassation.
It was the strong mobilization of the France Telecom unions, supported by the Labor Inspectorate as well as scientists, which made it possible to denounce the suicides and hold a trial. But since then, in this company as elsewhere, the unions and the Labor Inspectorate have undergone a set of reforms which have significantly reduced their means of action. Despite the condemnation of France Telecom/Orange and its former managers, reorganizations continue in the company: 16 suicides have still been recorded in 2023 and the unions are questioning managerial policy. Are we doomed to see history repeat itself? What does this situation reveal about the treatment of suffering at work in France?
Twenty years of union battles
Let's go back to the early 2000s. The notion of moral harassment then attracted strong media and political attention in Europe. Under the leadership of the European Union, member states, including France, must legislate on the subject. But in France, the debate rages around two opposing visions: one reduces harassment to an individual practice (one employee harassing another), while the other, more political, considers harassment as a consequence of working conditions. work.
This latest vision, supported by CGT trade unionists, PCF elected officials and various professionals (lawyers, scientists, occupational physicians), proposes a law defining harassment as a “deliberate degradation of working conditions”. These actors have been campaigning for decades to recognize the harmful effects of certain working conditions on mental health (stress, burn-out, depression, suicides).
In 2002, after an injunction from the European Union and three years of debate, France adopted a law on moral harassment. However, it favors an inter-individual approach: harassment is defined as “repeated actions” between employees having the consequence of degrading their working conditions and harming their health, without taking into account the impact of forms of harassment. organization of work. Despite its limitations, this law expands the obligation of employers to protect not only the physical, but also the mental health of their employees. As a result, mental health is fully recognized and becomes a legitimate subject for staff representatives and trade unionists.
Subsequently, it is thanks to their action over nearly 20 years that the concept of harassment will evolve as well as the legal framework protecting the mental health of all employees, women and men.
Determining role of CHSCT
In 2002, a major court decision occurred in the context of the trials linked to the asbestos scandal. The Court of Cassation establishes that the employer has an obligation of safety of result towards its employees: it must not only prove that it has done its best, but guarantee their physical and mental health.
This legal change allows trade unionists to legally force employers to preserve the health of employees. Many CHSCTs and unions use this framework to oppose dangerous projects, whether they involve employee evaluation, restructuring or reorganization. For example, in 2008, the “Snecma ruling”.
Read more: Moral harassment: what the verdict in the France Telecom trial changes
The Court of Cassation recognizes that work organization choices can cause psychological suffering. The following year, another decision established that personnel management methods could constitute moral harassment. In 2012 (FNAC judgment), the Court of Appeal required employers to assess the psychosocial risks linked to job reductions and to consult the CHSCT before any reorganization.
These advances, resulting from union initiatives, strengthen the legal framework for occupational health and broaden the definition of moral harassment. From now on, it can arise from a management policy and not just from individual conflicts. These developments will allow France Telecom unions, with the support of the labor inspectorate, to denounce the management practices of their management.
At the heart of the France Telecom affair
At the heart of the France Telecom affair (which became Orange in 2013), two restructuring plans initiated in 2006 after privatization provided for 22,000 departures and 10,000 transfers among 120,000 employees. Didier Lombard and Pierre-Louis Wenès were the main architects. Lombard, infamous for his phrase in 2007, “I will make the departures one way or another, through the window or through the door,” symbolized the violence of this policy.
-The reorganization imposed changes of function, forced departures, pressure and intimidation, permanent controls of activity, causing immense suffering. Between 2006 and 2010, more than 60 employees committed suicide. This figure brings together the number of people who committed suicide listed by trade union organizations, when 19 cases were discussed in court.
Despite warnings from occupational doctors, CHSCT and unions, management continued its policy.
At the end of 2008, management achieved its objectives: 22,450 people will have left the company and 14,000 will have changed jobs. But these transformations will also have led to immense suffering among many employees and several dozen suicides. The unions alerted the press and the affair became public. The State, main shareholder of France Telecom, is forced to intervene and mandates labor inspection. In 2009, with the support of the labor inspectorate, the SUD PTT union filed a complaint against France Télécom, Didier Lombard, Pierre-Louis Wenès and Olivier Barberot.
Widespread suffering at work
Despite a historic trial condemning managers for moral harassment linked to a company policy, the situation at Orange has barely changed. Workforce reductions continued, going from 84,000 to 66,000 employees between 2016 and 2021, with an agreement providing for 10,000 departures by 2025. In 2023, 16 suicides were recorded by the unions, but management remains inflexible and maintains its course.
Orange is unfortunately not an isolated case. The observation is now established: working conditions have deteriorated significantly over the last 30 years, as a result of the intensification of work taking place since the 1990s and the rise of management practices by numbers. . A considerable part of the workforce today faces psychosocial risk factors (high workload, lack of autonomy, conflicts of values, economic insecurity, conflicts at work, etc.) has been documented.
According to various surveys, between 2.5 and 3.2 million French employees declare themselves to be in a situation of professional exhaustion, or even “burn-out”. Although these estimates should be handled with caution, they nevertheless give an idea of the extent of the phenomenon.
Macron orders: weakened labor law
Furthermore, since the 1980s, after the passing of the Auroux laws, labor law and union law have undergone a series of reforms largely unfavorable to workers. The CHSCTs were abolished in 2017, by the “Macron” orders, and replaced by commissions with diminished power and which cannot act in court.
Dangerous individualization of problems
They are unfortunately too often masked by indifference (media and political) concerning the theme of health at work, but also by the speeches of companies and a group of actors (coaches, experts, psychologists, etc.) who help to individualize the problems experienced by employees. Aware of the need to position themselves on these issues, a number of companies are increasing their speeches promoting the centrality of well-being, training in stress management and the development of chief happiness officer and others responsible for quality of life at work. But in reality, only a minority of them really modify working conditions to preserve the health of employees.
History teaches us that the best way to protect the health of employees is to allow them to constitute a counter-power to employers' decisions, which involves strengthening labor law and union rights as well as by that of the labor inspectorate. The labor inspectorate played a decisive role in the France Telecom affair by carrying out an in-depth investigation, based on reports from the CHSCT, unions and occupational doctors. She helped demonstrate the harmful effects of reorganizations and referred the matter to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
This affair, as the history of struggles against suffering at work shows us that it was when trade unionists were able to ally themselves with other social groups (scientists, doctors and labor inspectors, politicians, etc.) that they obtained the best advances.
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