An interim worker died on Wednesday morning during the unloading of a truck supplying the Decathlon store in the La Madeleine district of Paris. Trade unions have requested an extraordinary CSE meeting on Thursday.
An interim worker died on Wednesday morning during the unloading of a truck supplying the Decathlon store in the La Madeleine district of Paris. On Thursday, trade unions requested an extraordinary CSE meeting, according to AFP sources.
“This morning we learned of the death of an interim worker following an accident” with a forklift truck, while unloading a truck supplying the store, said CFDT in a statement. The store’s management confirmed in an email to AFP the fatal accident of an interim worker, expressing their “thoughts” “first and foremost to his family and loved ones.”
Doubts about safety conditions “The store team is deeply affected by this tragedy and a psychological support service has been put in place,” says Decathlon, adding that an “investigation is underway” into “the causes of the accident and death.”
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office stated on Wednesday evening that it had entrusted an “involuntary manslaughter investigation to the Central Paris police station jointly with the Regional Interdepartmental Directorate of Economy, Employment, Labor and Solidarity”, in order to determine “whether all required safety conditions were met.”
“The victim, born in 1988, was an interim worker on his first day of work,” the prosecutor said, confirming that “the initial elements suggest that the accident occurred in the context of unloading a truck of goods.”
CFDT, “angry,” has called for an “extraordinary CSE meeting” to be held. The organization said it had raised the alarm on Monday about a “serious and imminent danger” concerning “the dangerous conditions of unloading the truck” supplying the store.
Goods unloaded on the sidewalk “The goods reception process is unique” in La Madeleine, as they “are unloaded on the sidewalk before being taken downstairs in an elevator,” explained Fernando Da Costa, CFDT elected member of the CSE at Decathlon stores in the Paris region.
“This elevator was out of order until yesterday,” he said, requiring the use of temporary agency workers capable of operating a forklift truck as a substitute. On Wednesday morning, “the elevator was working but not the truck’s tailgate,” requiring the use of a forklift truck again.
Fernando Da Costa expressed hope that during the extraordinary CSE meeting, which could be held on Thursday afternoon according to several sources, there would be “transparency regarding the circumstances of the tragedy, and we also want to be sure that everything is being done to prevent these reception conditions from happening again.”
