Two deaths and great concern within a large institution. Two employees of the Banque de France committed suicide during the month of June at their home, one of them questioning his working conditions in a letter to explain his action. the bank confirmed the two suicides and declared that “the procedure is ongoing, respectful of people and completely independent”. The results of the investigation are expected by the end of October.
“It is naturally a tragedy, to which we are all sensitive and very attentive” and “the bank will of course strengthen all necessary measures, if necessary, to prevent as much as possible these situations of great distress which affect us deeply” , declared management in a message sent Wednesday to all employees. A psychological unit has been set up.
“A real concern about a France Telecom risk”
An exceptional meeting of the central social and economic committee on the subject took place on September 11, at the end of which the elected staff denounced the management’s refusal to respond to their requests, and in particular to take a break in the reforms. A new meeting must be held on October 4 where the unions should vote on “an expertise for serious and imminent danger across the entire perimeter of the bank,” declared the CGT, the first union within the banking institution.
The two employees who ended their lives worked within the fiduciary sector (which issues and collects notes and coins), a “sector which lives in permanent insecurity”, with regular site closures, denounced Hugo Coldeboeuf , union representative of the CGT Banque de France, evoking “a real concern about a France Telecom risk”, in reference to the series of employee suicides that the company experienced in the 2000s.
“We have testimonies (from employees) which come back to us, we feel that this has freed up speech,” he adds, recalling that all the unions have been denouncing for years the deterioration of working conditions within the bank, which has reduced its workforce by 25% since 2015. In a 2021 report on psychosocial risks, four out of ten employees indicated being in a situation of stress, and the situation has largely deteriorated since 2011, with the risks of “pressure, intimidation”, “conflict of values”, “uncertainty about the future” and “meaning and interest of work”.