Europe 1 with AFP 5:48 p.m., January 27, 2022
A hostess from the Carrefour brand killed herself in 2017. Employed for 27 years at the Thiers store, she denounced her working environment and the moral harassment of which she said she was the victim.
A fine of 100,000 euros was required against the company for "involuntary homicide".
A fine of 100,000 euros was required against the Carrefour company on Wednesday before the Clermont-Ferrand criminal court for "manslaughter" following the suicide of an employee in Thiers in 2017. The company, the store manager and a fund manager also appeared for "moral harassment".
Six-month suspended prison sentence for manager
The prosecution also requested a 10% increase in the fine, as well as the publication of the decision and the posting for two months on the doors of the company.
He also requested a six-month suspended prison sentence against the manager, as well as a fine of 5,000 euros, the deprivation of eligibility rights for five years and a ban on exercising the profession on the occasion of which the violation occurred.
Nothing was required against the director, who was absent from the hearing, which lasted late into the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
Victim of moral harassment
On April 3, 2017, Viviane Monier, 46, ended her life in Vollore-Ville (Puy-de-Dôme).
This hostess, employed for 27 years at the Carrefour store in Thiers, had left a letter questioning her professional environment and the moral harassment of which she said she was the victim.
A labor inspection investigation had corroborated these acts of harassment and the company has already been condemned for "inexcusable fault" by the social division of the judicial court on November 25th.
“It results from the hearing of the employees that the general atmosphere in the store of Thiers was very bad and this for several years”, had underlined in its judgment the social pole.
Tensions between colleagues were known
"The organization put in place by management has caused tension between colleagues", he adds, referring to "situations of favoritism" between the hostesses or on the contrary "reprisals (change of schedule, surveillance, refusal to granting leave)" on the part of management and the manager against other employees.
The reports of several CHSCT (health, safety and working conditions committee) had mentioned psychosocial risks.
"The debates were long and the denials of the manager and Carrefour were a real ordeal for the family of the victim", reacted the lawyer for the civil parties Me Clémence Marcelot.
The lawyers for Carrefour and the manager, Me Emmanuel Daoud and Me Bertrand Chautard pleaded for release for their clients.
Judgment was reserved for February 7.