Following Noël Pouliquen’s victory at the TGI in Vannes, we reproduce here the press release from our partner Collectif de Soutien aux Victimes des Pesticides de l’Ouest with Union Régionale Solidaires de Bretagne :

In a judgment handed down today, Wednesday November 6, 2019, the social section of the Court of Vannes recognised the inexcusable fault of the employer TRISKALIA against Noël POULIQUEN, an employee at their GLOMEL site (22).

Defended by Mr LAFFORGUE, it is a new victory for TRISKALIA employees after that of Pascal BRIGANT and Claude LE GUYADER for which the GUINGAMP Labour Court sentenced NUTREA-TRISKALIA to pay them nearly 110,000 € for termination of employment “without real and serious cause”, on October 24.

Noël POULIQUEN was hired in 1989 at the Triskalia site in GLOMEL (22), a logistics platform for the storage and distribution of “plant health products”. He held jobs as a warehouse clerk, order picker, delivery driver. In 2015, at the age of 48, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was diagnosed and required an auto-transplant. Since then, he has been on sick leave and suffers from the consequences of the disease and its treatments. The whole family is affected.

In December 2016, his disease was recognized as a pesticide-related occupational disease. His father Raymond, an employee at the same site, had himself declared leukaemia in 1999.

Following this positive decision, it will be up to the Tribunal to assess the amount of physical and moral damage suffered by Noël.

Triskalia already has a long history with pesticides. In PLOUISY (22), the cooperative was sentenced several times by the Social Security Court (TASS) in cases concerning L. GUILLOU, S. ROUXEL, P. BRIGANT, C. LE GUYADER, G. LE GOFFIC. At GLOMEL, other employees are sick or deceased.

In the current context of awareness of the danger that pesticides represent for our health and environment, the fight of Noël is essential to denounce the irresponsible behaviour of a cooperative such as TRISKALIA towards its employees. Beyond that, it shows that the “handling” of these “phyto-sanitary products” will always be dangerous, even deadly for those who are in contact with them, whether they are farmers, employees or residents. The constant support of the Collectif and the Solidaires union to the victims of pesticides of Triskalia and others made this new victory possible.

Rennes, November 6, 2019

Contacts :
Collectif de soutien aux victimes des pesticides de l’ouest : Michel BESNARD – 06 73 19 56 07
Union régionale Solidaires de Bretagne : Serge LE QUEAU – 06 80 95 85 17