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France Telecom and its leaders, including former CEO Didier Lombard, were sentenced on Friday December 20 for " moral harassment ", in the case triggered by a wave of employee suicides. The Paris Criminal Court sentenced the ex-leader to one year in prison, eight months suspended and 15,000 euros fine, the group, renamed Orange in 2013, to 75,000 euros fine.
Former CEO Didier Lombard has appealed his conviction, said his lawyer shortly after the verdict was announced. The Orange company, it will not appeal the condemnation of France Telecom.
At the hearing last July, the prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence against the defendants , saying that the penalties prescribed by law at the material time were very weak. The court respected the requisitions, also ordering the former leaders to four months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.
The conviction targets, in addition to Didier Lombard , the former CEO of France Telecom , the former number two of the Louis-Pierre Wenès group and the former director of human resources, Olivier Barberot. All were found guilty of harassing employees to push them to leave France Telecom when the company was in full social plan, providing for the departure of 22,000 employees.
Several of them then committed suicide by leaving overwhelming letters on the pressures exerted by their employer.
Finally, France Telecom, as a legal person, will also have to pay a fine of 75,000 euros, as provided for by the requisition. The unions, for their part, like SUD-PTT, at the origin of the first complaint against France Telecom, had declared before the verdict to want an " exemplary judgment ".
The CFDT hopes that the " decision will set a precedent for business leaders tempted by these management methods to know that it is no longer possible to act with impunity ".