Suicides of healthcare workers in hospitals: Ministers Catherine Vautrin and Elisabeth Borne targeted by a complaint

A complaint for moral harassment and involuntary homicide has been filed against Health Minister Catherine Vautrin and Higher Education Minister Elisabeth Borne to denounce suicides among public hospital staff amid deteriorating working conditions, the plaintiffs' lawyer announced on Monday.

This complaint, filed Thursday with the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) by 19 people – caregivers and widows – also targets the offenses of intentional violence resulting in death without the intention of causing it and endangering the person, according to the document consulted Monday by AFP and revealed by France Inter and Le Monde.

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Ms. Vautrin's entourage did not wish to make "any comment at this stage."

Ms. Borne could not be reached immediately.

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The Minister Delegate for Health and Access to Healthcare, Yannick Neuder, is also affected by the accusations.

"The hospital has been experiencing a major crisis for many years, which appears to have worsened since around 2012-2013, through the continued application of neoliberal public policies which, despite numerous particularly worrying warning signs, including suicides, have not been corrected, quite the contrary," the complaint states in its preamble.

The deterioration in working conditions has accelerated since the Covid-19 health crisis began in spring 2020, notes the plaintiffs' lawyer, Christelle Mazza, who is requesting the application of the France Télécom case law.

Two former executives of the group (which became Orange in 2013) were convicted of institutional moral harassment in September 2022 by the Paris Court of Appeal.

"The France Telecom case law must be applied to ministers as it is to any business leader in the name of the principle of equality before the law, particularly when there are such attacks on the integrity of the person," the lawyer told AFP.

"Any business leader who would implement such massive and repeated restructuring policies as in the public hospital, with such consequences on working conditions, would already be condemned and the company closed," she added.

This complaint denounces "totally illegal and deadly working conditions", "unsustainable work schedules" in various medical bodies, specialties and regions of France, and "organized impunity against the perpetrators of the acts".

"Alerts raised either individually or systemically are completely ignored," it is stated.

The CJR is the only court empowered to prosecute and try members of the government for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.