HR in France - helping to reduce suicides

France Telecom is planning to recruit 100 new HR advisers and work with unions to tackle workplace stress, following 24 staff suicides in 18 months

There has been a significant amount of press coverage of the tragic cost of company restructuring at France Telecom, where there has been a rising number of suicides over recent months. The blame for these alarming statistics has been placed at the door of France Telecom’s ‘modernisation’ programme, which has seen 22,000 jobs lost and 10,000 people change jobs (often from a technical to a customer service or sales role).

In a further development, Didier Lombard, the chief executive of France Télécom, has faced calls for his resignation after another member of staff committed suicide yesterday, bringing the tally to 24 deaths in 18 months.

The latest in a list of deaths, which has shocked France and sparked debate over restructuring at the telecommunications giant, occurred on Monday when a 51-year-old employee killed himself in the French Alps. The man left a note blaming the ‘‘atmosphere’’ at work before throwing himself off a motorway bridge in Alby-sur-Chéran.

The French government are already involved in the case, and ministers have urged a more ‘‘humane’’ approach to job changes at France Telecom, prompting Mr Lombard to hire 100 additional advisers in human resources and launch negotiations with unions on workplace stress.

For more information and some discussion starters on the HR implications of large-scale restructuring, and minimising workpalce stress, see Calls for France Telecom boss to resign as suicides hit 24