For Oumar Kaba, the countdown started last November when his employer, the cooperative company Scopelec, lost a huge contract with Orange. Anyone installing and repairing fiber optic networks in Charente sees the deadline approaching, that of his dismissal. His wife and daughter would soon join him in France, thanks to family reunification: “I wonder how I’m going to go to work right now. No one is quiet.”
“We don’t want to leave our box overnight where we have affinities, where we feel good in the attitudes of newcomers. Going to other companies without knowing how humanely it will happen.”
Oumar Kaba, employee-partner at Scopelecat franceinfo
Oumar is one of about fifty employee-partners who gathered on Thursday 21 April, Place de la Bastille in Paris, to denounce the job security plan that the management of Scopelec is preparing. This PSE provides for the redundancy of 800 people, or almost a quarter of the workforce. ‘This is one of the toughest social plans France has seen in months’ wrote the Scopelecs in an open letter addressed to the two presidential candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.
“We necessarily expect something, that’s for sure, at the point where we’ve reached, confides Martin, a Scopelec employee in the Vendée. This is the third time we come to Paris to demonstrate and in fact all we’ve had is nothing at all. To be polite, we’re screwed. The outgoing president should at least do something to support us.”
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 500 employees have already agreed to a reclassification at a competitor, another Orange subcontractor. After seven years with the company, Benoît Lesueur decided to change sectors: “Personally, it would be more support for training. Rather, it would be to expand into another sector of activity, support for retraining with, if possible, a fixed salary. Because despite everything we have women, children, credits.”
Publication of affiliated employees pic.twitter.com/1nxJJC7AcU
— SCOPELEC Group (@GroupeScopelec) January 21, 2022
Due to the loss of its contract with Orange, Scopelec has to surrender 150 million euros per year, which amounts to 40% of its turnover. For management and employees, it is therefore up to the operator to finance, at least in part, the training of the redundant personnel. Ralph Blindauer, works council attorney for the cooperative, believes Orange is responsible for the 800 job cuts: “We are in a situation where we are finally giving ourselves the right to life and death over the subcontractor.”
“Orange has civic responsibilities, it has to take them on. And so Orange has to give us enough to pay for a quality social plan for these workers.”
Ralph Blindauer, works council attorneyat franceinfo
But it is a clear refusal on the part of the operator for the time being, announces Marc Blanchet, technical director and information systems of Orange France: †For us, this is a completely misplaced request, which does not fit within the contractual relationship we may have with our partner. We have played a role in facilitating the relocation of employees and providing enough activity to enable Scopelec to manage a transition phase, which is of course not easy. Volumes of activity, at least temporarily for the months, for the coming quarters.
Orange has offered EUR 43 million in business to Scopelec by the end of next year. According to her, the company would cost more than twice as much to finance the social plan.
