PARIS, July 5 (UPI) -- French authorities said they are investigating the former head of France Telecom for the suicide deaths of 35 of his employees between 2008 and 2009.
Didier Lombard is the first CEO of a multinational company that has been brought before magistrates for alleged psychological harassment, France 24 reported Thursday.
Sebastien Crozier, head of the CFE-CGC union at France Telecom, said during a restructuring of the company that eliminated some 30,000 jobs, employees were put under "unbearable pressure" to complete impossible performance targets or were forced to move geographically.
"The whole strategy was to reduce the number of employees," he added. "It was an organised and planned method to make employees' lives difficult so that they would resign."
Lombard said his strategies were never meant to harm employees, but to save the company and jobs.
"I am conscious of the fact that the company's upheaval may have caused problems [for some employees]," he wrote. "But I absolutely reject that these plans, which were vital to France Telecom's survival, were the direct cause of these human tragedies."
Lombard resigned from the company in 2010.
"Since Lombard has left the company the number of suicides has dropped by two thirds," Crozier said. "We need to ask why the rate was three times higher when he was CEO."
