France - 
Article published the Tuesday 11 January 2011 - Latest update : Tuesday 11 January 2011

Postal worker suicide 71st in a year, says union

Photo: Lover of Romance

By RFI

The suicide of a French postal worker has prompted fears about working conditions in the Post Office. A 56-year-old worker killed himself on Saturday in Bouches-du-Rhône, in southeast France. It is the fifth in the region since last January and the 71st nationwide, according to trade unions.

The Post Office has formally denied this number.

"All the suicides are linked to the way people feel in the company,” CGT union member Jean-Luc Botella told AFP. He added that one had left a note for his wife which backed up this theory.

The worker who died at the weekend was being subjected to an audit after making an 160-euro accounting error.

His wife told AFP her husband had been worrying about work for the last six months and that she may take the Post Office to court.

The Post Office has started an independent internal enquiry.

France Télécom was hit by a similar problem in 2008 and 2009. A total of 35 workers killed themselves.

tags: Post office - Suicide
Related articles
Comments
React to this article
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters (without spaces) shown in the image.
Close