This Tuesday, January 21, 2025, the Court of Cassation will deliver its verdict on the appeals filed by the former CEO of France Télécom Didier Lombart and his number two after their conviction in 2022 by the Paris Court of Appeal.
This is the judicial epilogue of a case emblematic of suffering at work. The Court of Cassation will rule on Tuesday on the appeals filed by the former CEO of France Télécom and his number two after their conviction for characterized institutional harassment leading to a wave of suicides.
The highest court had considered the arguments raised by all parties at a hearing on November 13. The attorney general had recommended that the appeals be dismissed. The Court may decide to reject the appeals, which would make the decision final, but also partially reform this decision or order a new trial.
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The former boss of France Telecom Didier Lombard, 82, and his number 2 Louis-Pierre Wenès, 75, were sentenced on September 30, 2022 by the Paris Court of Appeal to one year of suspended prison sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros, sentences reduced compared to those handed down in first instance in 2019.
“Die-hard”
The two former executives of France Télécom (which became Orange in 2013) faced justice because of the implementation in 2006 of two restructuring plans (from 2007 to 2010) following the privatization of the company (2004) and providing for the departure of 22,000 employees and the mobility of 10,000 others (out of some 120,000 employees).
In the first instance, the two men were sentenced to one year in prison, four months of which were firm for their “preeminent role” in the implementation of a policy of workforce reduction “to the bitter end” over the period 2007-2008 within France Telecom. These departures at “forced march” with “prohibited methods” had led to a “deterioration of working conditions” of “thousands of employees” , some of whom committed suicide.
The crisis broke out into the open after the suicide in July 2009 of Michel Deparis, a Marseille technician who had directly accused France Telecom in a letter. France Telecom has become the symbol of suffering at work. The company, which did not appeal, was fined the maximum amount of 75,000 euros in a historic judgment, becoming the first CAC 40 company to be convicted of institutional “moral harassment”.