"Deadly" working conditions, "totalitarian management," "ignored warnings": a complaint has been filed for moral harassment and involuntary manslaughter against the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, and the Minister of Education, Elisabeth Borne, to denounce the suicides of healthcare workers in public hospitals.
The 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, the plaintiffs' lawyer, Christelle Mazza, announced to AFP on Monday, confirming information from France Inter and Le Monde.
A judicial source confirmed to AFP that the CJR had received this complaint.
Ms. Vautrin, who has "a thought for all the families affected by these tragedies," will make "no comment at this stage." "Justice follows its course in its independence," she wrote in a message to the press.
Ms. Borne is being targeted as Minister of Higher Education and Research. When questioned, her ministry expressed "its support for healthcare workers and the families of those workers who have been confronted with such serious human tragedies." The ministry also "reaffirmed its commitment to fully cooperate with the judicial authorities."
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 Mr. Mazza.
"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," she told AFP.
Two former executives of France Telecom (which became Orange in 2013) were convicted of institutional moral harassment in September 2022 by the Paris Court of Appeal.
The Court of Cassation, which dismissed their appeals in January, considered that "actions" aimed at implementing, "knowingly, a company policy which aims to degrade the working conditions of all or part of the employees in order to achieve a reduction in staff or to achieve any other objective, whether managerial, economic or financial, or which has the effect of such a degradation", may constitute a situation of institutional moral harassment.
– “Wave of suicides” –
The complaint, seen by AFP, denounces "totally illegal and deadly working conditions," "unsustainable work schedules" in various medical professions, specialties, and regions of France, as well as "organized impunity against the perpetrators."
The "mechanism of control to illegally organize overwork, requisition of personnel, threats, forced labor outside of any regulatory framework" as well as "totalitarian and unequal management" are also highlighted.
"The alerts raised, either individually or systemically, have been completely ignored," it states. There has been "no political awareness or will to change the dismantling of the public hospital system."
Three establishments are cited as examples, located in Alsace, Hérault and Yvelines, which "are experiencing a particularly worrying wave of suicides, without any measures being implemented, participating in an institutional denial."
An occupational health nurse, who hanged himself in his office in September 2023, reportedly wrote "several letters" to criticize "the harassing behavior of the HRD (Human Resources Department) and also the organization of work in a completely devastated occupational health department."
Two nursing students also committed suicide at the psychiatric facility, according to the complaint.
Furthermore, the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) is the subject of a complaint for institutional moral harassment, it is highlighted in the document.
Asked by AFP, the AP-HP indicated that according to the information at its disposal, this complaint had been filed by two doctors who were themselves the subject of an internal investigation for acts of harassment, following reports from several caregivers.
The CJR is the only court empowered to prosecute and try members of the government for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.
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