"France Télécom suicides: Three former bosses jailed", 20 Dec 2020

The ex-boss of France Télécom and two former executives have been jailed over a moral harassment policy linked to suicides among employees in the 2000s...

The company, since renamed Orange, was fined €75,000 ($83,000; £64,000).

The court examined 39 cases of employees, 19 of whom had taken their own lives and 12 who had attempted to.

The others had lived with depression or had been otherwise unable to work...

It is the first time that a French court has recognised "institutional harassment".

The BBC's Paris correspondent...says the trial has been seen in France as a landmark case for relationships between workers and management...

At the time, the newly privatised company was in the throes of a major reorganisation. Lombard was trying to cut 22,000 jobs and retrain at least 10,000 workers.

Some employees were transferred away from their families or left behind when offices were moved, or assigned demeaning jobs...