SNCF was ordered last week by the Paris Court of Appeal to compensate 119 former railway workers for anxiety damage, after exposure to asbestos at their workplace, we learned from their lawyer on Tuesday. .
The court ordered the SNCF to pay a total of more than one million euros – 10,000 euros in damages “in compensation for the prejudice of anxiety” to each of these 119 former employees – “all retirees now”, a Me Xavier Robin told AFP, confirming information from the Norman media Le Poulpe and the SUD-Rail union. Asked by AFP, SNCF replied that it would not make “any comment on this subject”.
There are “119 favorable and identical decisions”, in “similar cases”, and “25 unfavorable judgments” for cases which had “not been sufficiently supported with testimonies of relatives or colleagues”, explained the lawyer. . These former railway workers “mainly worked in maintenance, in workshops,” he said. This procedure was launched “in 2013 before the industrial tribunal”, he added.
More than at first instance
In 2019, the court made a first decision in favor of another former railway worker, ordering SNCF to pay him “7,000 euros” in damages, reported the lawyer. The court then “forgot to hear the other cases,” he said. In the case judged in 2019, the railway group had not appealed to the cassation, he said.
In one of the 144 judgments handed down on December 16, consulted by AFP, the court noted that the former employee concerned “intervened on materials containing asbestos, by brushing or cutting them”. The prejudice of anxiety is “established” and it is about an “effective anxiety”, underlines the court.
Hired in 1980, this former technical agent worked “throughout his career” in an equipment maintenance workshop, according to the judgment. Against the SNCF, the court held a “contractual fault”, because the company “does not demonstrate to have made available to its employee suitable protective equipment, or even to have informed him of the dangers that he could incur ”. However, the employer must “ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health” of its employees, recalls the court.
In a press release, SUD-Rail notes that this judgment “does not put an end to the asbestos problem” at the SNCF, where “even today, there are serious breaches of safety obligations”, accuses the union.