Suicides of healthcare workers in hospitals: a complaint against ministers Borne, Vautrin and Neuder closed

The Court of Justice of the Republic will not consider the moral harassment and suicides of public hospital staff reported by 19 individuals: one complaint against ministers Elisabeth Borne (Higher Education), Catherine Vautrin and Yannick Neuder (Health) was dismissed, while the others were deemed inadmissible.

In total, "19 complaints from individuals" had been submitted to the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) on April 10, the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Rémy Heitz, said in a press release on Thursday.

They denounced "acts described as moral harassment, fatal violence, involuntary homicide and endangering the person, following suicides which occurred in hospitals," said Mr. Heitz, who serves as a public prosecutor at the CJR.

The Court's complaints committee dismissed 18 of them "due to procedural irregularities" on June 19, the attorney general explained. The committee's judges and advisors also "dismissed the only complaint declared admissible, on the grounds that it did not contain any evidence that would characterize a crime or offense committed by the ministers in question in the exercise of their duties," he explained.

"This decision by the petitions committee, composed of three judges from the Court of Cassation, two State Councillors and two senior councillors at the Court of Auditors, is not subject to any appeal," Mr. Heitz stressed.

"I am very surprised by the dismissal of this complaint, which contains 359 particularly substantiated documents," reacted Christelle Mazza, the lawyer for the plaintiffs (caregivers and widows). "I see in it a message that seems very clear and highlights the whole problem with this jurisdiction, which lacks the legal, political, and budgetary means to fulfill its role," she continued.

"We are facing a state scandal with the desire to allow a form of impunity to continue within public hospitals," the lawyer denounced. These complaints targeted Elisabeth Borne as Minister of Higher Education, Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Labor and Health , as well as Yannick Neuder, Minister under the latter, responsible for Health and Access to Healthcare.

When contacted, the three ministers did not immediately respond to AFP. When the complaint was announced, Ms. Borne and Ms. Vautrin declined to comment on the substance of the complaint but reiterated their support for caregivers and their loved ones.

This complaint recalled that the "major crisis" that the public hospital system has been experiencing "for many years seems to have worsened since around 2012-2013, through the continued application of neoliberal public policies which, despite numerous particularly worrying warning signs, including suicides, have not been corrected, quite the contrary."

The reports included "totally illegal and deadly working conditions," "unsustainable work schedules" in various medical professions, specialties, and regions of France, as well as "organized impunity for the perpetrators."

The deterioration of working conditions has accelerated since the Covid-19 health crisis began in spring 2020, Mr. Mazza estimated in this document. The lawyer wanted to see the Court of Cassation's case law on institutional moral harassment applied.

In January, the highest court in the judicial system ruled that "actions" aimed at implementing, "knowingly, a company policy which aims to degrade the working conditions of all or part of the employees in order to achieve a reduction in staff or to achieve any other objective, whether managerial, economic or financial, or which has the effect of such a degradation", may constitute a situation of institutional moral harassment.

Furthermore, a judicial investigation was opened on May 15 by the Paris prosecutor's office following a complaint by medical professors for moral harassment against the Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP). The CJR is the only court empowered to prosecute and try members of the government for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.