The deputy chief executive of France Télécom stepped down today after unions blamed his aggressive management for a spate of suicides at the telecommunications giant.

Louis-Pierre Wenes, 60, will be replaced by Stéphane Richard, a former French Finance Ministry adviser who joined France Télécom last month.

Mr Wenes, who was in charge of the group's operation in the country, is seen by detractors as responsible for the sweeping internal reforms which they say have placed staff under intolerable stress.

His supporters say that he was seeking to make the former state monopoly, privatised in 2004, more competitive without compulsory redundancies among its 103,000 personnel in France.

Mr Wenes, who said that he would be retiring, fell on his sword in an apparent attempt to save Didier Lombard, the chief executive, amid the political storm that has been sparked by 24 suicides in the past 18 months.

But Mr Lombard's hold on his job has been weakened by the release of a video in which he is seen telling managers in the French provinces to work harder.

The days when they spent their time ''fishing for mussels'' were over, he said — comments denounced as unacceptable by unions.

In 2011, Mr Lombard, 67, is due to be replaced as chief executive by Mr Richard — a 48-year-old multi-millionaire who advised Christine Lagarde, the Finance Minister, until his appointment to France Télécom.

The latest suicide occurred on Monday when a 51-year-old employee killed himself in the French Alps.

The man, who was married with two children, left a note blaming the ''atmosphere'' at work before throwing himself off a motorway bridge in Alby-sur-Chéran.

Like many of the suicide victims, he had recently switched jobs — in his case moving to a call centre where he faced performance objectives for the first time in his career.

Unions said France Télécom had agreed to prolong a freeze on compulsory job changes until the end of the year. The measure - introduced in a bid to reduce stress levels - was originally due to end this month.

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