• The carrier Jacky-Perrenot and four of its leaders appear until Tuesday before the criminal court of Le Mans.

  • After the death of two drivers of the group, more than 40 employees or relatives of the alleged victims filed a complaint for harassment.

More than 40 people accuse them of an institutionalized system of harassment and have decided to file a complaint against them.

The carrier Jacky Perrenot and four of its leaders appear until Tuesday before the criminal court of Le Mans for harassment and manslaughter.

Two drivers from the group, which employs more than 9,000 people and presents itself as a leader in transport for mass distribution, died a few weeks apart in 2018: one committed suicide, the other had an accident following an illness at the wheel.

In both cases, these deaths were partly linked to the pace and working conditions imposed by the management of the Sarthe subsidiary of the group, Perrenot-Robineau, based in Soulitré near Le Mans, according to the investigation.

The 56-year-old driver who ended his life, accustomed to long distances, would have been assigned against his will to regional tours deemed difficult.

His partner believes that “the employer is totally responsible for the suicide of his spouse”.

The other driver, who died of a road accident at the age of 42, had also experienced his transition from the status of "long-distance truck" to that of day laborer as a punishment, evoking "crazy pressure", for example, to deliver customers on time.

Infernal cadences, punishments...

Following these deaths, more than 40 employees or relatives of the alleged victims, heard by the investigators, filed a complaint for moral harassment between 2016 and 2021. They denounce in particular infernal cadences, tours modified at the last moment, "punishments" for those who do not fit into the mould… “The drivers had become mere pawns, numbers.

There was no social policy in the company.

It was do or die,” said a former human resources employee.

The first day of hearing allowed to hear the four defendants and the president, legal representative of his group, prosecuted for moral harassment and involuntary homicides within the framework of work.

They explained that road transport was a "complicated job", which sometimes forces drivers to leave in the morning without knowing when they will return to their base.

"We are constantly finding solutions to the hazards", assured the director of the Soulitré site, Sébastien Rousset.

The trial is due to end on Tuesday.

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  • Justice

  • Le Mans

  • Harassment

  • Pays de la Loire

  • Working conditions

  • Manslaughter