French affiliate FCE-CFDT has condemned Swiss chemicals and pharmaceutical company Novartis for installing a special telephone line in plants so workers can whistle-blow on one another.

The union said such a practice abuses the company’s own code of conduct, and creates a sour climate for employee morale. The central committee of workers for Novartis’s French enterprises, along with the FCE-CFDT and CGT-FO, have taken legal action in the city of Nanterre.

In spite of laws and regulations preventing such practices, certain multinationals, including Novartis, do no hesitate to transgress these laws and regulations in order to arrive at methods that are perceived to be accountability measures, stated the FCE-CFDT.