A court jailed the former CEO of a French telecommunications company and other executives for "management by terror" that led to a rash of worker suicides.

"I am committing suicide because of my work at France Telecom," read one suicide note displayed in court.  "It's the only cause."

It's the first time that a major company has been tried on a charge of "collective moral harassment" in France.  

The ex-CEO Didier Lombard as well as Louis-Pierre Wenes and Olivier Barberot were each sentenced to a year in prison, although the judge suspended eight months.  They were also fined 15,000 Euros/AU$24,000 each.  Four other executives were found guilty of complicity and given four-month suspended sentences and AU$8,000 fines.

The root of the problem was privatization.  When France Telecom was spun out of the Ministry of in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the new, private company set up to get rid of 20 percent of its workers - but they resisted and refused to quit.  Management then came up with the strategy of shedding workers "either through the window or through the door" - Lombard's own words.  The harassment included demotions, demeaning work, micromanagement, repeated reassignments, unwanted transfers hundreds of kilometers from the workers' homes, and outright isolation.

The trial concluded that Lombard and his cronies were responsible for 35 worker deaths - including 19 employees who took their lives at work or with suicide notes blaming the company, and 12 others who attempted to do so.

"They never had any remorse during the trial; they constantly put the blame on subordinates," said Jean Perrin, whose brother Robert committed suicide in 2008.  "I have only disgust and contempt for them."

The company - France Telecom, which has since been renamed Orange - was fined around AU$120,000.