Work Related Stress Blamed For 24 Suicides In France Telecom
After union protests over 24 workers killing themselves in 18 months, France Télécom boss Didier Lombard says he wants a 'new social contract' with trade unions.
Suicide notes have blamed high levels of work stress on workers' decisions to end their lives and Lombard - whose number two, Louis-Pierre Wenes, resigned early October after intense criticism of the company's handling of the crisis - has promised to ease up on workforce mobility, which has been a bone of contention.
A major restructuring project at France Télécom has led to employees being moved across the country. Now Lombard has announced a freeze on compulsory moves until December and promised workers that they can stay put for three years after changing area. Workers within three years of retirement age will not be forced to move.
The response from unions has been cautiously optimistic. Sandrine Leroy, from the Force Ouvrière (FO) union, said 'the tone had changed,' adding that the management proposals are 'a basis which we will try to improve'. The management concessions came after protest stoppages in October at the firm.
The latest suicide victim was a 51-year-old father of two, who jumped to his death at the end of last month. Jean-Paul Rouanet left a note blaming the 'atmosphere' at work. Colleagues said he had recently been moved from a back-office role to work in a call centre, and had struggled to cope with handling customer complaints and attempting to sell new services. They also said thousands of other workers have experienced this kind of upheaval.
Now, France Télécom is preparing to set aside €1 billion (£90m) as part of a plan to end a spate of suicides amongst staff by offering older workers the chance to go part-time. The telecommunications giant, which has already suspended restructuring, said it may enable staff aged over 57 to work part time under a stress reduction programme.
The part-time jobs would be made available on a voluntary basis to employees who felt that full-time work was endangering their health. Gervais Pellissier, the company's financial director, said the measure would be provisioned in this year's accounts and added that a cost estimate of ?1 billion 'is not fundamentally far from our working hypothesis.' Didier Lombard, the company's embattled chair, has been targeted by unions for introducing a blizzard of changes since privatisation in 2004.
The unions have blamed performance targets, tough management and workplace mobility programmes for the series of suicides. The deaths have prompted the former state monopoly into a wide-ranging review of working practices overseen by Stéphane Richard, a former French government adviser who last month took over as deputy chief executive. Mr Richards, who is set to replace Mr Lombard as chief executive in 2011, admitted the group had 'gone too far' in its attempts to supervise staff through the introduction of 'control tools.'
HSE Advice on tackling workplace stress
Source TUC Risks / The Times
