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Is Ikea spying on its employees? France outraged

Nicola Clark

Virginie Paulin’s voice trembles when she recounts how she was fired from what she considered her dream job at Ikea in France.

“I was stunned,” she said. As a 12-year employee of the Swedish home furnishings group,Paulin had risen to become deputy director of communications and merchandising for Ikea’s two dozen stores across France.

But then she was forced out after a year’s medical absence — and after what was subsequently revealed to be an investigation of her by Ikea’s French headquarters,which suspected she was not as sick as she had said. The company was said to have provided a private detective with her social security number,personal cellphone number,bank account details and other personal data.

A regional court in Versailles,near Paris,is examining whether Ikea executives broke the law by ordering personal investigations — not only of Paulin but of hundreds of other people over the course of a decade.

A review of the court records by The New York Times indicates that Ikea’s investigations were conducted for various reasons,including the vetting of job applicants,efforts to build cases against employees accused of wrongdoing,and even attempts to undermine the arguments of consumers bringing complaints against the company. Between 2002 and 2012,the finance department of Ikea France approved more than 475,000 euros in invoices from investigators.

Paulin’s case has caused public outrage in France,not only because of the company’s large consumer following here — Ikea’s third-largest market after Germany and the US — but also because the alleged spying by French executives occurred in a country that,in the digital age,has elevated privacy to a level nearly equal to the national trinity of Liberté,Égalité and Fraternité.

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The company,which the court required to post a bond of 500,000 euros last month,conducted its own review of the matter last year,after a series of internal emails detailing spying were leaked to the French news media. That internal inquiry resulted in the firing of several executives,including the former chief executive,Jean-Louis Baillot.

In Paulin’s case,when she received her termination letter in February 2009,the official reason was Ikea’s urgent need to fill her post with a permanent replacement. She had been unable to work for more than a year after she learned she had hepatitis C in early 2008.

Paulin,now 53,said she was unaware during her absence that her bosses had doubted the severity of her illness,for which she still receives treatment. In accordance with French rules,Paulin had submitted medical certificates to Ikea’s human resources department. She had met regularly with her local social security office,which had approved the extension of her leave and granted her permission to travel,on more than one occasion,to an apartment she owned in Morocco.

When she learned that the company intended to let her go,Paulin hired a lawyer.

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In April 2009,Paulin was invited to meet with Claire Héry,Ikea’s head of human resources for France. When she arrived at that meeting,she was surprised to find that the French unit’s chief executive at the time,Baillot,was also present.

The two executives,Paulin said,accused her of exaggerating her illness — although she said they offered no evidence to support their claims.

Even after the meeting,Paulin pressed her case,and in 2010 a judge ruled that her firing was “devoid of real and serious justification”.

She did not seek reinstatement,but was awarded nearly 60,000 euros in compensation. Still,she said,the reason her bosses had levelled their accusations at her remained a mystery.

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