Renault and its Cléon plant were held responsible for the accidental death of an employee in 2016. – PRM / SIPA
The Renault group and its Renault Cléon plant in Seine-Maritime were “recognized entirely responsible” by the Rouen criminal court for the manslaughter of a technician who died as a result of an accident in 2016. The courts have therefore condemned SAS Renault and SNC Renault Cléon to a fine of 300,000 euros in total.
In detail, the Renault group was fined 200,000 euros and SNC Renault Cléon fined 100,000 euros. As an additional penalty, the judgment must be displayed for one month at the entrance to the company and on the panels of staff representatives.
“Renault must accept the judgment and draw consequences”
“We are relieved by this judgment, reacted Karim Berbra, lawyer for the family of the dead employee. We are satisfied that the two companies were sentenced at the request of the civil parties. Renault is responsible for the death of Jérôme Deschamps. Renault must accept the judgment and draw consequences for the employees who still work on the site. Renault and the prosecution have ten days to appeal.
At the hearing in April, the Rouen prosecutor’s office requested a fine of 200,000 euros against the factory but left the decision on the group itself to the discretion of the court.
The victim had not received “specific training
Marion Meunier, deputy prosecutor of the Republic, had noted “a plurality of faults on the part of the employer, with a cause and effect link with the death of [la victime] », Jérôme Deschamps, father of two children. The technician died on March 17, 2016 following an accident on March 10, 2016 at the Cléon plant. He had been found lifeless, crushed by the drying compartment of an industrial washing machine.
The magistrate of the public prosecutor’s office had notably underlined that the victim had not received “specific training in this machine” and a “lack of prior risk assessment”. “Several testimonies say that Jérôme Deschamps did not know how the machine worked. He was not trained in the operation of this machine, ”had for his part noted the president of the court Mélanie Petit-Delamare.
The hearing took place in the presence of the brother and wife of the victim, civil parties, like the CGT. “The business and the procedures are not in question, in my opinion. It is a mistake of inattention, had on the other hand estimated at the helm Paul Carvalho, the former director of the factory. It is a dramatic accident, a trauma for me even today. “