A man, aged 45, has been arrested after allegedly shooting a HR manager and a job centre adviser in France last week.
On Thursday 28th January, it was reported that a suspect had shot and killed a job centre adviser and a HR manager in Valence and Guilherand Granges, South-Eastern France.
In addition, the gunman is thought to also be responsible for attacks which occurred days before in the North-East of France and claimed the life of a different HR manager. Another Human Resources professional was also attacked at his home but survived. Reports stated that these two employees knew each other and had previously worked in the same HR department.
This violence was thought to be motivated by a deep hatred for HR as the victims were connected to the gunman’s previous employment. It has been confirmed that the gunman worked at Faun Environnement in Guildherand Granges before being made redundant. It is thought that he held HR personally responsible for being unable to find employment since, choosing to specifically target the HR manager at his old firm.
It is unclear at this stage whether the gunman personally knew the job centre adviser who he shot and killed almost instantly but he had signed up with the job centre in 2010 and was on their books until 2013.
The BBC also stated that authorities were looking into a social media campaign that occurred in 2018 called “balancetonDRH” or “expose your HR managers”. Allegedly, as part of this, names had been posted on social media of people condemned as killers or mercenaries.
According to the prosecutor, the assailant was “brought before an investigating judge and charged with murder”. The prosecutor also noted that the suspect had been put into prison but was refusing to speak to investigators.
The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, stated that the murders had put “the whole country into mourning”. As a mark of respect, almost 1000 job centres closed across France on Friday to commemorate the victims and one minute of silence was observed.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.