Laying their lives on the line

France's largest telecommunications company finds itself having to examine the working regimes that trade unions say are making some employees desperate enough to contemplate suicide

Staff and unions at the France Telecom-Orange have complained since its privatisation in 2004 about impossible work targets and constant restructuring.

A man of 57 goes to the car park of the offices where he worked until being transferred against his will, sits down beside a wall and sets fire to himself.

And once again, France's largest telecommunications company and third-biggest in Europe, finds itself having to examine the work situations trade unions say are making some employees desperate enough to contemplate suicide.

The manner in which Remi L, as the French media have identified him, chose to kill himself would have attracted publicity no matter what drove him to it. The fact that he worked for France Telecom-Orange, in the south-western city of Bordeaux, ensured the attention would be relentless.

Staff and unions have complained since privatisation in 2004 about impossible work targets, constant restructuring and repeated moves between posts as the consequences of a plan to cut 22,000 of nearly 100,000 posts.

One former employee, Vincent Talaouit, wrote a book called They Almost Killed Me, claiming to have been forced out by a process of change, isolation and finally the "destruction" of his position. Remi, a father of four, is the latest of an estimated 60 employees of the company - in which the French government holds a 27 per cent stake - to commit suicide in the past three years.

After his accounting job disappeared in 2007 at the offices in the Bordeaux suburb of Merignac, he was transferred from one position to another, and finally to a new job working alone in the health and safety department in the city centre.

The investigative French website Mediapart has reproduced a letter written to management by Remi two years ago in which he drew attention to poor arrangements for retraining and a worsening office atmosphere in which he had endured harassment and rejection.

"Cowardice, poverty, lack of managerial responsibility," he wrote. "Let's all carry on - employer, state shareholder and policymaker, unions, staff - ignoring the real causes: in 10 years we will still be dealing with this subject yet a certain number of staff will have gone, through retirement or suicide, and the problem will finally be resolved."

As if warning of the action he would eventually take, Remi added: "This situation is endemic of the fact that nothing is done to address the problems; suicide is the only solution."

More recently, he took up the case of another employee claiming to have suffered through enforced changes at work.

Remi's relatives believe his death stemmed from his deep unhappiness at work.

"The family wants judicial, political and social follow-ups in this case, which is clearly linked to the suffering inflicted on Remi, as on most workers over 50 years old, by France Telecom for several years," said Gilbert Hanna, from the Bordeaux trade union group Solidaires 33.

The suicide is a serious blow for a relatively new management team that believed it had got to grips with the human resources problems alleged to have been the root cause of the first series of deaths.

Although some commentators have argued the suicide rate among France Telecom-Orange employees is similar to the national average, and the average in other companies with big workforces, it has never shaken off the impression that the demands on staff became excessive and dangerous in the clamour to restructure.

After 300 France Telecom-Orange workers staged a minute's silence outside the Merignac offices for Remi last week, Christian Mathorel of the CGT union described the company as understaffed and said this had an effect on working conditions.

The union's figures show 27 France Telecom-Orange employees committed suicide last year, and more than 30 died in the preceding two years. Remi's is the second recorded case this year.

"We're all completely stunned," said Florence Bordes-Baillard, another union official, who added his death was particularly shocking because Remi was not easily given to emotion, although he "did get angry when he saw injustice in the workplace".

After being appointed chief executive last year, Stephane Richard, formerly a top ministerial aide, appeared to distance himself from past management practices. Mr Richard pledged an improvement in working conditions with counselling and monitoring for staff in need. France Telecom-Orange is already considering its response to a ruling by an insurance tribunal, which was interpreted by the media as classing suicide as a workplace health issue like any other.

That judgment followed the death of Nicolas Grenoville, a technician working on telephone systems who was suddenly asked to accept a new role dealing with clients, which he loathed, and also cut his income by €600 (Dh3,263) a month.

Before hanging himself, Mr Grenoville sent an e-mail saying his work was causing him suffering and the company had put him in a financial mess.

The decision, if upheld on appeal, would leave France Telecom-Orange facing 45 similar actions.

Little wonder that when asked about the death of Remi, the management went out of its way to appear conciliatory.

Delphine Ernotte, the executive director, met colleagues of the dead man and promised a thorough investigation on the tragedy.

Mr Richard said while attending an unrelated function at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris: "If the inquiry finds any form of corporate responsibility, I will draw all the consequences, particularly with regard to recognising the tragedy as an accident at work."

* additional reporting by Agence France-Presse