Paris - French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday that the management of telecommunications giant France Telecom must undertake measures to halt a series of suicides by company employees. "We need a strong message to all employees from the top (management) level," Lagarde told France 3 television.
She urged executives to determine if the company's restructuring was the reason 23 France Telecom employees took their own lives over the past 18 months.
The latest death occurred Friday, when a 32-year-old female employee jumped out of the window of her fourth-floor office in Paris.
That incident prompted Labour Minister Xavier Darcos to call a meeting on Tuesday with France Telecom head Didier Lombard to discuss working conditions at the company.
Union officials say that the restructuring of the company, and the trimming of some 22,000 jobs over the past several years, was at least partly responsible for the suicides.
