The trial of the French subsidiary Ikea, accused of creating a system of illegal surveillance of its employees, including trade unionists, began on Monday, in a criminal court in Versailles, near Paris.
The subsidiary of the Swedish furniture giant – prosecuted as a legal entity and legally represented by its CEO and chief financial officer Karine Havas – he faces a fine of up to 3.75 million euros ($ 4.4 million).
Fifteen people are also on trial, including store managers, police officers and former executives, such as former CEO Stefan Vanoverbeke (2010-2015) and his predecessor Jean-Louis Baillot.
The case, revealed in 2012 by the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné and the news site Mediapart, He was denounced by a union and fired four senior managers of the company.
The investigation revealed, according to the Versailles prosecutor’s office, the existence of a “spy system” of employees but also of job candidates that have spread throughout the country.
According to the indictment, the information was collected from several hundred people, including trade unionists, and their criminal records and lifestyle were scrupulously analyzed.
“This is a judgment that must be exemplary. ” said Adel Amara, a former FO union delegate at an Ikea store in Franconville, Val-d’Oise, before the hearing.
“We are here today to show that there are these kinds of maneuvers in companies that monitor unions and especially employees,” said Amar Lagha, general secretary of the CGT trade and services union.
But according to defense lawyers, the investigation has many weaknesses. Olivier Baratelli, lawyer of the former director of human resources Claire Héry, dI said that he would plead for the nullity of the case, denouncing a “fable made by the unions”.
The trial will run until April 2.
Lists of people
The defendants will have to answer, among other accusations, to those of illegally collects and discloses personal information, breaches of professional secrecy and conceals such crimes, which exposes some of them to a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
The defendants appear for events spanning the period 2009-2012, but these practices date back to the early 2000s, according to the prosecutor’s office.
At the heart of this “system” was Jean-François Paris, former director of risk management at Ikea France, present at Monday’s meeting.
According to the investigation, Paris sent lists of people “to examine” to private investigation companies to which the Ikea subsidiary allocated a budget of between 30,000 and 600,000 euros per year (between 35,000 and 715,000 dollars).
These lists, which the former director claims he received from those in charge of the stores, were sent to Jean-Pierre Foures, the director of the “business consulting” company Eirpace.
Jean-Pierre Foures is also accused of using, through police officers, the so-called STIC (registered crime handling system), a computerized police file, to access confidential data.
The four police officers involved, however, said in the investigation that they had not received any financial compensation.