It is a trial that all parties have been waiting for more than four years. On September 22, 2016, Yoan Bérodot, forestry trainer at the vocational training and agricultural promotion center (CFPPA) of Saugues (Haute-Loire), aged 34, died on an educational site, hit by a pine felled by one of his students. A tragic accident for which only the responsibility of the learner, aged 22 at the time, was involved until today. “Can we blame someone who had only been a lumberjack for two weeks for having cut a tree badly?” “ points out the lawyer of the principal concerned, Louis Piérot, who affirms that his client was “Very shocked” by this affair and gave up a career in logging despite obtaining his diploma.
“For three years, our two trade unions, the CGT agri and the Snetap-FSU, have been committed to supporting the family of our deceased colleague but also to prevent the debate from being reduced to the search for the sole responsibility of the adult trainee. , accused of manslaughter ”, explain the two unions who have brought civil proceedings in the proceedings. Because, for the CGT and the FSU, the establishment to which the CFPPA depended, the local public agricultural vocational training establishment of Brioude-Bonnefont, must also be held accountable for the accident. An element finally retained by the TGI of Puy-en-Velay, which will examine this Tuesday, after six dismissals and a new instruction, if the employer of Yoan Bérodot was at fault in the implementation of the necessary security measures.
“We knew a fatal accident was going to happen, we had been reporting breaches to the Ministry of Agriculture for years,” pointe Thomas Vaucouleur, national secretary of the agricultural CGT and forestry teacher. “For six months colleagues had been asking for headsets equipped with radios in order to be able to communicate despite the noise of the machines. They only got them after the accident ”, says the trade unionist. “Yoan was alone to accompany seven adult trainees”, underlines Jean-Marie Le Boiteux, national secretary of Snetap-FSU and teacher in the establishment of Brioude which employed Yoan Bérodot. However, for several years, the unions have required the presence of two supervisors to avoid this kind of tragedy. A security measure that is far from always being applied, for this structure as for others in France.
“This year, I have a second class where they are 24”
“It’s always a fight”, regrets François (1), contractual forestry teacher in a vocational agricultural college in another region. “This year, I have a second class where they are 24. Even doing half-groups, I find myself alone with 10 to 13 students. If I have to put them 15 meters from each other, it’s unmanageable ”, he testifies. “I’ve been sweating for four years now. When we try to explain the risks to the management of the establishment, they tell us that they do not have the means to put a second supervisor ”, continues François. The precariousness of his status, the same as Yoan Bérodot, does not help. “The holders tell us to put ourselves in the right of withdrawal but, if I do that, I lose my job, so we have no choice, we have to manage”, continues the contractor. All in a context where the Holy Grail of tenure is difficult to reach. “There is a freeze on forestry competitions. And, when there is one, it is for one or two positions throughout France ”, he asserts. “We try to minimize the risk by giving a machine to only one in two students, but suddenly it divides their learning time by as much, and that frustrates the kids”, explains François.
“The legislation has rather strengthened in recent years. Not the resources allocated to establishments ”, deplores Olivier Bleunven, Secretary General of Snetap-FSU and forestry teacher. “The death of Yoan Bérodot should have been an electric shock, but it was not, nothing has changed”, he insists. For him, beyond the responsibility of the establishment of Brioude-Bonnefont, it is that of the Ministry of Agriculture which is pointed out. “In some establishments, colleagues call on us because they have to pay out of pocket to buy basic safety equipment, which is compulsory on construction sites. It’s completely crazy, knowing that the employer, whoever he is, is required to ensure the safety of his employees ”, recalls the union official, who believes that this trend has worsened with the empowerment of high schools. “More and more decisions are referred to school heads but with a constrained budget, when strong national decisions are needed. “ And this is not the only financial constraint weighing on schools. “These educational projects are carried out on behalf of principals, but if we want to obtain the contract, we must align ourselves with the price brackets of the competition, while there is an educational process to supervise students who cost more ”, estimates Jean-Marie Le Boiteux. “And, in terms of continuing education, establishments are put in competition to respond to calls for tenders from the region or from Pôle Emploi. These institutions also have a responsibility in favoring the economic criterion over that of security ”, pointe Thomas Vaucouleur.
In recent months, five loggers have lost their lives at work
Especially since logging is known for its risks. “This sector remains the most accident-prone, with a frequency rate of 130 work accidents per million hours worked, far ahead of the construction industry (90 per million hours worked) and the average of the general scheme (30 per million of hours worked). Hours worked) “, underline the CGT and the FSU, estimating at five the number of lumberjacks having left their life at work in recent months, while a young apprentice would have been seriously injured. Because the risks do not spare the students: between 2018 and 2020, the teacher Matthieu Lépine, who lists on his website the deaths from work, counted three cases of apprentices who died in forestry work, as well as several seriously injured. Difficult to obtain more precise statistics, the unions deploring that the Ministry of Agriculture does not communicate on accidents within the framework of educational projects. “If we want these figures, it is not to make a morbid count, but for each of these cases to be analyzed between the unions and the ministry to see how to fix what did not work”, Judge Olivier Bleunven. “We are waiting for justice to be done in relation to Yoan and his family, but also that he did not die for nothing”, sums up Jean-Marie Le Boiteux. A rally at the call of the CGT and the FSU will take place today from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the tribunal de grande instance of Puy-en-Velay.
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