Moral harassment at France Telecom: “We are going to read the judgment to find out whether or not we are appealing” in cassation, says Didier Lombard’s lawyer

After the conviction by the Paris Court of Appeal of the former CEO of France Telecom Didier Lombard, Friday, September 30, for institutional moral harassment at the end of the 2000s, his lawyer, Jean Veil, told franceinfo that “the decision that was rendered today appears in a judgment of 341 pages, you will understand that we have to read these 341 pages before making a decision as to whether or not we are appealing [en cassation].” He pleaded for the release of his client. The lawyer Louis-Pierre Wenès, ex-number 2 of the group, also sentenced to the same sentence, makes the same comments.

Didier Lombard, the ex-CEO, and Louis-Pierre Wenès, ex-number 2, are sentenced to one year in prison suspended. They must pay a fine of 15,000 euros. At first instance, they had been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, including eight months suspended, and a fine of 15,000 euros for their “prominent role” in the implementation of a workforce reduction policy.

After the privatization of France Telecom, the management implemented two restructuring plans (from 2007 to 2010) providing for the departure of 22,000 employees and the mobility of 10,000 others (out of 120,000 employees). Several dozen employees had committed suicide during this period, against a backdrop of great social unrest. During the trial, the cases of 39 employees were examined: 19 ended their lives, 12 attempted to do so and eight experienced an episode of depression or a work stoppage over the period 2007-2010.