A French telecommunications company and its former director, is punishable, after 18 workers committed suicide at two to three years.

A former director in the telecommunications company France Telecom - today, Orange - has been sentenced to imprisonment and fined for harassment of the employees.

The 77-year-old ekschef Didier Lombard gets 12 months in prison, eight months of which are conditional. He is also awarded a fine of 15,000 euros - equivalent to 112.000 dollars.

the Case goes back to the end of the 00's, where a number of employees of the former France Telecom committed suicide. According to the prosecutors, there was talk about 18 suicides and 13 suicide attempts from april 2008 to June 2010.

Among the second stack of an employee allegedly himself in the stomach during a meeting, while another jumped out of a window. It writes the news agency Reuters.

the Case put a large focus on the unhealthy work culture in France.

Orange, as the company is called today, and two other former high-ranking employees have also been convicted of harassment.

/ritzau/