"It was like Russian roulette": after a series of workplace accidents, Paprec factories face legal action

In the space of fifteen months, two serious accidents occurred in the factories of the Paprec group, France's third largest recycling company. The first occurred in Lansargues, in Hérault, on April 8, 2022. A young temporary worker, caught in a bag-sucking machine, miraculously escaped, but with several fractures to his hand, left arm, and shoulder blade, a scalped portion of his scalp, and lasting after-effects. In Nîmes, on the early afternoon of July 26, 2023, a similar accident would claim the life of Jules Pertet, a 21-year-old maintenance technician. The worker, who had been on a permanent contract with the group for a few weeks at the time of the tragedy, had just told his parents he wanted to resign. "He didn't feel safe," his mother, Sylvie Pertet, recalls today.

This latest case will be brought before the Nîmes Criminal Court this Thursday, June 12, starting at 2 p.m. Paprec Méditerranée, a subsidiary of the Paprec group (with a turnover of three billion euros), is being tried, among other things, for involuntary manslaughter, accused of failing to meet its safety obligations. At the time of the tragedy, Jules Pertet was in charge of a maintenance operation scheduled twice a day, which involves cleaning a so-called "plastic suction" machine to remove waste and prevent blockages.

As usual, he had entered the machine box to access the separator on which he was to enter.