For labor court justice, the coal mines of Lorraine have illegally exposed hundreds of employees to dangerous products, which can significantly harm their health.
The former miners will therefore have won their case after a difficult legal battle. This Thursday, June 30, Charbonnages de France (CdF) – a former public establishment specializing in coal production, dissolved in 2007 – was found guilty of “breach of its safety obligation”, reports AFP. For years, coal mines in Lorraine have exposed their workers to two particularly dangerous substances: novice dust and formalin, leading to increased risks of disease. Intransigence therefore on the side of justice, which this Thursday condemns CdF to compensate the former minors – 786 people – by paying them each one thousand euros. The industrial tribunal of Forbach, in Moselle, also recognizes the prejudice of anxiety for the victims. A decision welcomed by the unions and the civil parties.
Damage very rarely granted
The prejudice of anxiety is only very rarely recognized in a case. Until now, it had only been recognized once for workers not exposed to asbestos. It had been granted in the case of the iron mines of Longwy (Lorraine), 10 former iron miners were concerned.
As for the Lorraine mines, justice estimates in a press release that exposure to dangerous products constitutes “a specific moral prejudice known as anxiety”: with regard to the substances to which they are exposed, the employees fear falling ill. They are therefore permanently in an anxious mental state, liable to develop serious occupational diseases. A “sword of Damocles” for Me Jean-Paul Teissonnière, lawyer for 700 former miners. Since the launch of legal proceedings in 2013, “twenty people have been killed,” says the lawyer. “Before, the prejudice of anxiety was asbestos,” he adds. Today, other populations, well characterized (…) will be able to seize it ”. And faced with this recognition of damage, the CFDT Minors manager, François Dosso, was quick to react: “We are also very satisfied because it is the reaffirmation of the employers’ obligation of safety and results”.
Management defends itself
On the defense side, the court decision goes badly. Last March, during the hearing, the lawyer of CdF evoked “personal predispositions of minors”: tobacco or alcohol, to justify their prevalence to certain diseases. For the lawyer, the mining establishment had complied with all security measures. For others, like Daniel Cadoux, liquidator of CdF, the former miners play “on emotion by evoking death”. For the latter, “anxiety is characteristic of the human condition”. However, justice did not give in, stressing the “non-compliance with the recommended exposure limit values” and the “failure in the individual protection of minors”.
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