This is a first in France. The Besançon CHRU received a € 40,000 suspended fine for deliberately endangering the lives of others after exposing its employees to asbestos.
“This is the first time in France that a public establishment, and moreover a hospital, has been condemned for deliberately endangering the lives of its employees concerning the asbestos risk,” said Agence France Presse on Wednesday. (AFP) the inter-union (CFDT, CGT, FO, SUD) and the lawyers of the civil parties.
This first concerns the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Besançon (Doubs) which was found guilty yesterday of endangering the lives of forty employees by deliberately exposing them to asbestos for more than four. But the establishment only received a suspended fine.
More precisely, the criminal court of Besançon condemned, in first instance, the CHU Jean-Minjoz to 40,000 euros suspended fine. The prosecution requested 60,000 euros during the hearing last September.
The CHU appeals its conviction
However, the management of CHU Jean-Minjoz has already announced that it will appeal this conviction. And she got a lot of support to do that. In a press release, the Hospital Federation of France (FHF) writes that it fully associates itself with the decision of the establishment. It regrets in particular that, “despite its complexity, this file was not the subject of a preliminary investigation”.
“Many public and private buildings present risks linked to the presence of asbestos, and the management of these risks is a particularly complex issue, especially on occupied sites,” specifies the Federation.
Claiming to be “particularly sensitive to this public health problem and to maintaining a balanced approach between the risks of exposure of employees and the responsibility of the employer”, the FHF hopes that in the future this file will be able to make a difference. ‘object of “attention and serious exemplary”.
A release on some of the facts
As a reminder, the hospital was prosecuted for endangering about fifty employees “by manifest and deliberate violation of a regulatory safety obligation”, from April 2009 to June 2013. The hospital was nevertheless released. in the case of a few employees.
“This judgment seems ambiguous to us: an acquittal was pronounced on some of the facts, while the hospital was convicted on the same facts, moreover, for other agents”, underlined in this respect the advice of the management from the hospital, Claude Evin and Pierre-Yves Fouré.
“And if we consider that the penal level is endangering the lives of employees, why have imposed a suspended sentence? They ask themselves. The presence of asbestos at the Jean-Minjoz hospital was clearly established in 2006 and asbestos removal work began in 2009.
Disappointed by this court decision, the inter-union welcomes a “symbolic criminal sanction” for “hospital workers who will have to live with the permanent fear of developing an illness”.
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