A temporary worker died Wednesday morning while unloading a truck supplying the Decathlon store in the La Madeleine district of Paris, and the unions requested the meeting of an extraordinary CSE this Thursday, AFP learned from reliable sources.
The Paris prosecutor’s office specified on Wednesday evening that it had entrusted an “investigation into the charge of involuntary homicide to the Paris-center police station in co-referral with the DRIEETS (Interdepartmental Regional Directorate of the Economy, Employment, Labor and solidarities)”, in order to know “whether or not all the required security conditions were met”. “The victim, born in 1988, was a temporary worker on his first day of work,” specifies the prosecution, which further confirms that “the first elements lead us to believe that the accident occurred in the context of unloading a truck merchandise “.
A broken elevator to blame?
“This morning we learned of the death of a temporary worker following an accident” with a forklift, while unloading a truck responsible for supplying the store, the CFDT said in a press release. The management of the brand confirmed in an email to AFP the fatal accident of a temporary worker, sending its “thoughts” “above all to his family and loved ones”. “The store team is strongly affected by this tragedy and a psychological unit has been set up”, indicates Decathlon, further specifying that an “investigation is open” into “the causes of the accident and the death”.
The CFDT, “angry”, demanded the organization of “an extraordinary meeting of the CSE”. The organization says it alerted on Monday of a “serious and imminent danger” concerning “the dangerous conditions of unloading from the truck” supplying the store. “The process of receiving goods is particular” at La Madeleine in that they “are unloaded on the sidewalk before being lowered to the basement by an elevator,” explains Fernando Da Costa, elected official, to AFP. CFDT at the CSE of Decathlon in the Paris metropolitan area.
“This elevator was broken until yesterday,” requiring the use of a temporary agency capable of operating a forklift to replace it, he explains. Wednesday morning “the elevator was working but not the truck’s tailgate,” requiring the use of a forklift again. Fernando Da Costa said he hoped during the extraordinary CSE, which could be held this Thursday afternoon according to several sources, “transparency on the circumstances of the tragedy, and we also want to be sure that everything is put in place so that these conditions of reception no longer takes place”.