His denials absolutely did not convince the magistrates. Tuesday October 31, the former general secretary of Force Ouvrière (FO), Pascal Pavageau, was condemned by the 17e criminal chamber of the Paris judicial court for having undertaken the filing “clandestine” of 127 executives of the organization, before his election, in April 2018. A low-level police operation which caused a scandal and forced him to leave his functions, a little less than six months after taking command of the confederation.
The motivations for the decision, which The world was able to consult, are sober but implacable: the collection “illicit” personal data “was thought out, wanted and organized” by the former union leader, ” the concert “ with the woman who was his chief of staff and his partner at the time of the revelation of the facts, Cécile Potters.
The two defendants will have to pay a fine of 4,000 and 2,000 euros respectively. Their accomplice, Justine Braesch, who was Mr. Pavageau’s chief of staff when the affair broke out, was sanctioned in the same way, but for a lower amount (1,500 euros), her responsibility being “lesser” in the eyes of the court.
During the trial, which was held on September 13, the representative of the prosecution, Marion Adam, requested heavier sentences: six months suspended prison sentence for Pascal Pavageau and three months suspended incarceration for Justine Baesch and Cécile Potters. Civil party in the case, FO obtained, for the “damage” it suffered, 1 euro in damages, which will be paid “solidarily” by the three defendants. They will also have to pay the union 1,000 euros for procedural costs.
Two lists of 127 union leaders
The scandal was revealed publicly in an article in the Chained duck published on October 10, 2018. The weekly brought to light the existence of two lists of 127 FO leaders, with, for each of them, various information – some of which related to their “intimacy”, as the court points out (sexual orientation, state of health). THE “political or philosophical opinions” were often mentioned. In some cases, the assessments were accompanied by insults or accusations (“junk”, “mafioso”, “wallet thief”, “embezzler”, etc.). Developed before Mr. Pavageau was propelled to the head of FO, in April 2018, these documents also cataloged people according to their proximity to the general secretary and their positioning in the union. So many elements collected and preserved without the consent of the interested parties – therefore in complete violation of the law.
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