Béatrice Decroix is resigning her position at the editorial director of La Martinière Youth/Le Seuil Jeunesse children’s division in France as of February 15. The news came on Thursday following reports that the 16 staffers in the children’s division and a hundred more of their colleagues walked out for an hour-long strike on January 4 to protest what they deemed “psychological harassment” from management, and to demand Decroix’s resignation, according to reports from French trade press Livres Hebdo and ActuaLitté.
Decroix is the wife of Hervé de La Martinière, the group’s CEO; she launched the children’s division in 1995. A search has begun for a new leader for the division, which publishes approximately 180 titles per year and has a backlist of another 500.
In December, a petition calling for a “solution to the management crisis” was signed by 139 employees of the firm. In France, where employment is all-but-guaranteed by numerous government-mandated safeguards, strikes are commonplace but resignations are rare. Nevertheless, the work environment under Decrox prompted nine resignations and three layoffs since 2008 – near total turnover of staff through that period.
