Suicides at Renault prompt investigation
Very sad story here. French authorities are beginning an investigation into working conditions at Renault's technical design center, following three suicides among the workforce there. All three have occured since October, when one worker jumped to his death from the fifth floor of the complex's main building. Another worker drowned himself in January, and most recently, an employee was found dead in his home who left a suicide note blaming difficulties at work for his demise.The CFDT workers union has issued a statement outlining how Renault's recent restructuring has led to increased pressure among the workers, enough apparently to push some over the edge. The union urged the company to evaluate the working conditions of its employees, which must be incredibly stressful. As Renault has recently seen a drop in profits due to an aging lineup and rising costs for raw materials, we can only imagine that the pressure to perform is increasing. Renault, for its part, has said it will look into how these deaths could've been prevented.
[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DriftPunch 3:20PM (2/21/2007)
Oh no, NOT only 4 weeks of vacation!!!
Just kidding, it's sad, but they will likely find mental illness to be the problem, not 'working conditions'!
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Jim Sanders 3:26PM (2/21/2007)
#1,
At least that means there is a problem at Renault, of recognizing mental illness, and helping their employees seek treatment.
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Kool, Could be due for NA 3:30PM (2/21/2007)
I have been to the place recently, and all is not well over at R. Much work, emphasis of performance, no new recruits due to lagging sales, all of this put a lot of psychological burden on the R's workers espcially at the R&D side that is concentrated at the TCR. The reports of the past deaths made me realize why some of the employees look frustrated. If this is the future of R, I urge Mr.Ghosn to look no further but at his footsteps near Versailles to fix the morale. I am sad for the TCR employees, and future of R.
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Lee Gibson 3:40PM (2/21/2007)
Why didn't they just surrender?
(I kid! I kid!)
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JohnAngelo 3:53PM (2/21/2007)
And Carlos Ghosn is knighted??
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fuzzwonder 4:03PM (2/21/2007)
you're raising the minimum to a 40 hour work week!!!
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Z 4:09PM (2/21/2007)
They were people right, not robots? I get so confused sometimes...
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Bill 4:27PM (2/21/2007)
Unemployment in France is quite high (10%?), so I would imagine that if you were lucky enough to have a decent job, the thought of losing it would be quite stressful. I won't resort to Franco-bashing, but workplace cultures and attitudes are very different in some countries.
Last winter (while in Switzerland) I saw several interview programs on French TV about the "student" riots taking place throughout France at the time. Lots of complexities there, but you got the sense that, besides being ticked off about a variety of things, there is a real disconnect between education, skills, economic trends, and government policy. One of the core complaints had to do with a change in the law which would allow new graduates to be fired at will, and thus were not guaranteed a "contract" of guaranteed employment without significant legalities for the employer. We're talking about the first job out of school! Don't we all wish we had guaranteed job security right out of school?! Naturally, employers were reluctant to commit to hiring when it's such a pain to get rid of somebody who doesn't work out.
The other almost comical statistic was the number of graduates with sociology degrees, who were lamenting that they could not find permanent jobs out of school, and instead were humiliated and relegated to endless interships and temp gigs.
(US Liberal Arts Major, not outsourced to India, yet)
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godda9u 4:35PM (2/21/2007)
their worst working condition is still better than many average jobs in the US. most people only have 2 weeks of vacation, co-paying health care that's not 100% on cost, 50 hour work week is the norm with no TO pay and that didn't cover the calls from work related things during the weekends.
i would gladly trade jobs with them.
may be that's why disgruntled workers in US don't commit suicides, we commit matrix-type rampage~
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Richard 6:20PM (2/21/2007)
The blush begins to come of the Ghosn rose?
I remember when "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap - who turned around the U. S. Sunbeam Corp. (appliances) and was widely hailed as the real corporate genius - took a job somewhere else and was quickly found to be an absolute idiot.
Carlos could be the same story.
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Jim Sanders 7:46PM (2/21/2007)
Renault needs to add a after work relax escort lounge on campus.
Male suicide rates will decrease dramatically, morale improve, and Renault will get a large secondary source of income.
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