Saturday, October 10, 2009

French unease at telecom suicides

French Labour Minister Xavier Darcos is to meet the head of the country's main telecommunications company to discuss a number of suicides among its staff. Twenty-three employees of France Telecom have killed themselves since the beginning of 2008.
Unions blame tough management methods at the multinational, which was privatised in 1998. In the latest suicide occurred on Friday, when a 32-year-old woman leapt to her death at a France Telecom office in Paris.
Two days earlier, a 49-year-old man in Troyes, east of Paris, had plunged a knife into his own stomach during a meeting in which he had been told he was being transferred.
The unions say a never-ending drive for efficiency is causing emotional havoc in the workforce - especially among older employees recruited when France Telecom was part of the public sector. Since privatisation in 1998 some 40,000 jobs have gone, and unions say there is pressure on many employees either to leave or to accept new working conditions. Tough life!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i can understand the peoples angst, i have been there too in a company i worked in. They demand you soul and the ethos is control of the workforce, work late, dont get paid for overtime, putting you through detailed assessments of your ability and worth always putting you down, and making a show of others that succeed. Must have been thought up by some evil person.