Posted Sep 30, 2022, 10:05 AM
A lenient verdict rendered this Friday in the France Telecom case. The ex-CEO Didier Lombard saw his sentence lightened, the Court of Appeal condemning him for institutional moral harassment to one year in prison with full suspension, against four months in prison at first instance.
Didier Lombard, now 80 years old, was also imposed the same fine, in the amount of 15,000 euros, as that pronounced in first instance in 2019. Its number 2 at the time of the events (2007-2008), Louis-Pierre Wenès, was also sentenced on appeal to one year in prison with a suspended sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros, twelve years after the events marked by a wave of suicides of group employees.
The appeal trial of former France Telecom executives prosecuted for institutional moral harassment ended in early July with a decision expected this Friday. The president, Pascaline Chamboncel-Saligue, then warned: “The decision that will be made will be based on the law and your positions are very opposed. There will inevitably be dissatisfaction when reading the judgment to come. »
Waves of suicides
During 2006, the management of France Telecom, privatized two years earlier, had implemented a policy aimed at 22,000 departures and 10,000 transfers thanks to two plans from 2007 to 2010, the period covered by the trial. In the midst of restructuring, the company had been confronted with a wave of suicides, attempted suicides and depression among its employees. Thirty-five people had taken their own lives.
According to the prosecution, the former leaders would have “designed and implemented” a policy of “industrial, collective and methodical moral harassment”, by means of “prohibited methods”, which led to a “degradation of working conditions” of ” thousands of employees. On June 24, the public prosecutor’s office had requested a one-year prison sentence, including six months suspended and a fine of 15,000 euros against Didier Lombard and his former number two, Louis-Pierre Wenès.
At first instance, in 2019, Didier Lombard and Louis-Pierre Wenès were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, including eight months suspended and a fine of 15,000 euros.
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