PHOTO by David Niviere
Following a letter left by a terminated employee accusing the institution of "mistreatment," several documents show that management was put on notice in 2017 following a "weight loss treatment" of the workforce. In 2019, expert testimony requested by the union for "serious risk" has already reported several tragedies that could have been minimized.
A few words scribbled on a piece of paper as a last wish, a cry of alarm. "I'm doing this act against the Bank of France," this staff delegate wrote just before he ended his life. Since this tragedy in June, compounded by the gesture of another employee in his home, Banque de France 1 has been forced to launch an internal investigation into the suicide, following an exceptional case by the Social and Economic Committee (CSE). The conclusions of this investigation will not be known until the end of the month, but multiple warnings should have prompted management to react.
All trade unions are unanimous in describing the "anxiety-inducing" and "pernicious" climate that has led to a meteoric rise in psychosocial risks (RPS). "All the thermometers at the Banque de France turned red, and management continued at the expense of the health of agents and the quality of the public service," summarises Hugo Coldeboeuf, Secretary General of the CGT Banque de France.
In five years, the number of employees has fallen by 22 %.
It was in 2017 that the first alarms were sounded, a year after the implementation of the Ambition 2020 plan. For François Villeroy de Galhau, former BNP Paribas CEO who became Governor of the Banque de France in 2015, the goal is to increase the institution's profitability by reducing costs by 10 %.
The number of employees will increase from 12,269 full-time equivalent employees in 2015 to 9,535 at the end of 2020, a decrease of 22 %. Between 2010 and 2015, 9 % positions were eliminated. Eight years later, the contract has been fulfilled as costs have declined by 3.5 % per year.
(Humanité/Clotilde Mathieu/USA)
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