French car maker Renault has drawn up an employee support plan following a series of suicides at the company’s state-of-the-art Paris Technocentre.
Unions had claimed that harassment at work played a part in the deaths of the engineers who worked on the conception and design of new vehicles – but official investigations have not established such a link.
The plan was put together in just two weeks, following a strict timetable set by Renault chief, Carlos Ghosn, for “concrete measures”. It aims to reinforce team management and improve working conditions, implement better workload planning and develop skills.
From 2 April the Technocentre, where two of the suicides took place, will have a director whose sole responsibility will be the site and its personnel. He will report to the executive vice-president for engineering and quality and the group HR director.
The directors of Renault’s other engineering facilities will, in turn, report to him and be in charge of the daily management of these sites. They will concentrate on developments in the working environment application of risk prevention plans and the improvement of daily living conditions.
Jean-Louis Ricaud, Renault’s executive vice-president for engineering and quality, said: “The challenge is to reinforce the quality of human interaction within the Engineering and Technocentre teams.”
Weekly meetings in each work unit will aim to improve dialogue and support staff.
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