News

The telecom multinational, under fire in recent weeks due to a number of staff committing suicide and linking this to pressures at work, has replaced the manager of its operations in its home country.



France Telecom privatised in the late 1990s and many, including some of the company's executives, link this process to an increase in work intensification and stress for staff. Tens of thousands of jobs have been cut from the company's French operations in the last few years.



Workers refer to a culture of "management of terror" and "moral harassment", while the company's Chief Financial Officer, Gervais Pellissier, said last week that a lack of separation between work and home life causes stress for workers



Louis-Pierre Wenes, who as deputy chief executive, led the company's drive to cut costs in France, was replaced by Stéphane Richard.



This decision came two days before planned industrial action by French unions, who describe this as a success. Patrice Diochet of the CFTC union called the change “the first measure to demonstrate France Telecom’s way of thinking and its willingness to change the way the business is managed”. Xavier Major, a CFDT union representative, said that CEO Didier Lombard must demonstrate “a genuine desire to change things.”



The company has also established a telephone counselling service and is expected to announce a moratorium on compulsory staff reassignments until the end of the year.