PARIS - The suicide of an employee has led Thales to replace the director of a microprocessor plant which makes semiconductors for defense use at Chateaubourg, western France, and delay a staff move to a nearby site, the company said in an Oct. 26 statement.
A series of suicides by employees at car companies Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroën and recently at telecommunications giant France Telecom has raised concern over stress at the workplace. Many of the cases involved highly qualified managers or engineers, with years of service.
The Thales member of staff took her life at home on Oct. 24, Agence France-Presse reported. The CFTC labor union said there was a direct link between her death and work conditions.
The chief executive of the aerospace division, Pierre-Eric Pommellet, visited the site Oct. 26 to meet labor representatives, employees and the family of the deceased, to "provide support and to put in place the actions needed to deal with this situation," Thales said.
"The significant challenges that the Chateaubourg site faces, tied to growth in its activities and modernization of its work environment, calls for a capacity for dialogue and greater training," the company said.
Management at Chateaubourg adopted measures including:
■ Deployment of a team, including two psychologists, to listen to employees and provision of an emergency free phone number.
■ Systematic organization of training on psychological risks.
■ Reinforcement of an early warning system at all levels.
■ Strengthening of the staff department to better take into account employees' expectations and an individual approach to employee issues, particularly in training.
■ Postponing until early 2010 a planned move of the Chateaubourg staff at to a facility at Vitré, some 15 kilometers away.
"To implement this plan of action, a decision has been made to immediately strengthen the management team with the appointment of Pierre Idrac as managing director," Thales said. "Very much affected by recent events, the director of the [Chateaubourg] facility wished to take a step back."
The Vitré facility, also part of the aerospace division, is growing due to rising production and has more modern buildings, a company spokesman said. The planned move involved transferring all 530 Chateaubourg employees to Vitré, the spokesman said. "Chateaubourg makes chips for defense use," he said.
The suicide of the Thales employee received wide media coverage over the weekend, including radio and the main evening television news on France 2 and TFI channels on Oct. 25.
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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