Orange
Profile
Orange, formerly known as France Telecom, was a state-owned telecommunications company from its founding in 1889 until it was privatized in 1998. In the decade after privatization, company management embarked on a campaign to reduce labor costs that courts later described as a system of “moral harassment” of staff. Some 22,000 staff quit or were laid off and an estimated 19-60 killed themselves. In 2019, Didier Lombard, the former CEO, was found guilty and sentenced to prison, while the company was ordered to pay €3.5 million to former employees and their families in compensation.
Fixed line telephone, Mobile phone, Broadband, IPTV (Internet Protocol Television)
Violations
Violation data for Orange is still being gathered at this time.
Stories
Activism
France: Strike at Orange Bank for better reclassification of employees
Boursorama | December 1, 2023
Orange Bank employees were called to strike on Thursday, with unions fearing that a large proportion of the online bank's employees will not find work when the operator closes it.
France: Amiens: Orange Bank employees walk off the job, worried about their future
Bakhti Zouad | Courrier Picard | June 27, 2023
On Tuesday, June 27, several dozen employees, worried about the future of the company and the lack of information regarding their future, walked off the job in front of the Orange building located at rue de la Vallée in Amiens. The CFDT and SNB-CFE-CGC unions had called for the walkout.
France: Orange unions are calling for a strike this Tuesday to build “a balance of power”
SudOuest | September 21, 2021
Trade union organizations are calling in particular for an increase in salaries and the recruitment of additional staff.
France: Unexpected protest fever at Orange
Stéphanie Crespin | CFE-CGC Orange | June 29, 2021
Strong social unrest that Orange's management is attempting to minimize is shaking the company. On the surface, this is a trivial salary demand.
France: “We boycotted the Obligatory Annual Negotiations (NAO) to make the HR department react” (CFE-CGC Orange)
Gilmar Sequeira Martins | Info RH Social | June 2, 2021
Launched on May 5 at Orange, the 2021 NAOs were interrupted during the second session, on May 12, by the departure of all the representatives of the trade union organizations, who deplored “the indecency of the proposals” from management.
France: Wage demands: five Orange subsidiaries on strike
Cyrille Chausson | Le MagIT | June 16, 2010
The striking employees are demanding an alignment of their salaries with the 3% increase announced at the end of April by Orange, according to AFP.
- Association for the Defense of Savings and Shareholding of France Telecom-Orange Employees (ADEAS)
- Democracy, Unity & Solidarity - Postal, Telegraph and Telecommunications Union (SUD-PTT)
- Ethical Consumer
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Federation of Employees in the Postal and Telecommunications Activities Sector (FAPT-CGT)
- French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT)
- Humane Tech
- National Banking and Credit Union (SNB/CFE-CGC)
- Workers' Power - Communications (FO Communication)
& Lawsuits
France: Orange withdraws radio ad that was deemed sexist
Floriane Ségales | E-Marketing | September 13, 2023
A radio spot from the Orange telecommunications group has just been withdrawn from radio broadcasts. The reason? The ad played on the gender stereotype that women are “bad” at math.
France: Orange execs' guilty verdicts over worker suicides upheld by appeal court
Benoit Van Overstraeten | Reuters | September 30, 2022
Charges of "moral harassment" were upheld by the Paris Court of Appeal on Friday against the former CEO of French telecoms group Orange, Didier Lombard, one other former executive and two still with the company related to a spate of worker suicides in the late 2000s.
France: Orange recognizes “fraud” in confidential report
Léo Le Calvez | Médiapart | June 6, 2022
In an internal investigation, the telephone operator describes anti-competitive practices that took place via telephone in Metz. Several witnesses called out management's inertia. The employee behind the investigation, fired for "incapacity", says he was threatened.
France: Orange chief to step down after receiving suspended jail sentence
Sarah White & Nic Fildes | Financial Times | November 24, 2021
Orange’s chief executive Stéphane Richard is to leave the group by the end of January at the latest, after he was given a one year-suspended prison sentence in a fraud case in France unconnected to the company.
French government summons telecom chief over breakdown in emergency services line
Nicholas Rushworth | France 24 | March 6, 2021
The French government summoned the head of the telecom operator Orange on Thursday over a network outage that left people unable to reach emergency services for hours, possibly causing three deaths.
French telecom company Orange convicted over suicides
Nicolas Vaux-Montagny | AP News | December 20, 2019
France’s leading phone and internet provider Orange was found guilty Friday of a string of employee suicides and its former CEO was sentenced to prison, in a landmark ruling against a major European telecommunications player.
French Caribbean: Orange ordered to pay rival Digicel close to $280 million
Reuters | June 19, 2020
French telecoms operator Orange has been ordered by a Paris court to pay local rival Digicel nearly 250 million euros ($280 million) in compensation for anti-competitive practices in the French Caribbean, the company said on Friday.
Orange fined €350m in France for market abuse
BBC News | December 17, 2015
The country's anti-trust authority said Orange, which was formerly France Telecom, kept business clients from switching to competitors' phone services.
France: Orange ordered to return 1.7 million euros to one of its works councils
CFE-CGC | July 8, 2011
Despite the CFE-CGC/UNSA union's warnings, the 5 other unions decided to leave the budget for management of catering and emergency social assistance to Orange's management. Management took the opportunity not to use the entire budget and paid the unused amounts into the shareholders' account.
& Relations
France: Orange Business: a social plan at the expense of seniors?
Samuel Ravier-Regnat | L'Humanité | March 21, 2023
The telecommunications group is expected to unveil a plan to cut 669 jobs in its business services subsidiary this Wednesday, March 22. Half of the employees concerned are between 46 and 55 years old. An announcement which illustrates the contradiction of the government project on raising the retirement age.
France: In Flers, unions opposed the transfer of the Orange store to the GDT subsidiary
Maxime Arnoult | Ouest France | March 7, 2023
“Orange's plan will reduce stores from 380 to 150 in France. All will be transferred to GDT. Employees will have a different collective agreement and poorer working conditions. To keep their benefits, they will have to move to Caen or Hérouville-Saint-Clair, for example, where the parent company's stores are located,” protests Maria Quentric, CGT union delegate of the Federation of Employees in the Postal and Telecommunications Sector (FAPT).
France: Orange switches 200 stores to a subsidiary to reduce costs
Allo Forfait | October 20, 2022
Of Orange's 550 points of sale in France, nearly 200 will switch to a subsidiary dedicated to distribution. This is a way for the operator to reduce its costs by changing the status of its employees.
France: Fiber deployment: the hidden face of a suffering sector
Pierre Manière | La Tribune | May 25, 2022
Many players say they are asphyxiated by the new prices charged by Orange, the largest ordering party, while damage and poor workmanship still abound on the networks.
France: Subcontracting, unreplaced retirements… How Orange is reducing its workforce
Jacques Sayagh | Ouest France | November 3, 2021
This question that will be on the table of the negotiations which are opening this year at Orange will concern “an intergenerational agreement”. “Management is considering offering a bonus to encourage employees eligible for retirement to leave,” notes Sébastien Crozier, of the CFE-CGC.
France: Suicides at France Télécom: a summary of the whole affair
Violaine Jaussent | France TV Info | July 9, 2016
After France Télécom was privatized in 1998 and became Orange, the CEO, Didier Lombard, came up with a profit-maximization plan called NexT. In October, 2006, he brought together nearly 200 senior executives directors to discuss how they must make 22,000 people (i.e. one fifth of the workforce) quit their jobs by 2008. “In 2007, I will make [these departures] in one way or another, through the window or through the door," he said. The horrific work environment that followed saw dozens of suicides by employees between 2006 and 2011.
France: Death of holders and escheat of funds: Scandal at Orange?
Nicolas Triki | CFE-CGC | February 18, 2016
Thanks to feedback from colleagues who alerted ADEAS and whom we thank, we were able to identify, within the Orange Group, 1,300 savings plans, for an amount close to 20 million euros, or on average 15,000 € per plan, affected by escheat following the death of their holder.
Employee shareholding: The CGC union denounces a “financial arrangement” at France Telecom
AFP | January 28, 2008
“Out of 14 million shares reserved for employees, nearly 11 million shares will be provided as guarantee to this bank,” Sébastien Crozier, president of the CFE-CGC union of France Telecom-Orange, said. “This means that these shares belong to the bank and not to the employees,” criticizes the CFE-CGC in a written statement denouncing “a scandal”.
France Telecom: 66% of employees stressed
Samuel Nohra | Ouest France | October 27, 2007
Faced with the drastic changes that France Telecom is experiencing, the CFE-CGC and SUD unions decided, last June, to launch a survey of the company's 108,000 employees, via the internet.
Financials
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Political Influence
Tunisia: Marouen Mabrouk, A Story Of Impunity After The Revolution
Mohammed Samih Beji Okkez | Nawaat | February 25, 2019
With help from telecommunications company Orange France, he managed to get Tunisia’s prime minister to unfreeze over seven million euros in assets held in EU countries.
& Evasion
France: Corporate tax: the dispute with Orange which risks costing the state dearly
Les Echos | November 4, 2020
Orange is demanding reimbursement of a tax of 1.9 billion euros, which it was forced to pay following a tax adjustment. But the bill for the state should be higher. It is estimated at more than 2.6 billion euros, taking into account the default interest which has been accruing for years.
France: The takeover of Orange Bank by Ripplewood, a risky alternative
Aurélie Abadie | L'AGEFI | January 9, 2024
The American fund would be ready to inject 300 million euros to turn around the mobile bank within three years. This takeover would allow Orange to avoid managing a job-saving plan. The problem could, however, come back like a boomerang if Ripplewood fails in an online banking market deemed unprofitable.
USA: Orange is leaving Silicon Valley through the back door
Dominique Filippone | Le Monde Informatique | August 19, 2023
Present for more than 20 years in San Francisco, Orange is closing its office in Silicon Valley this Friday. Around thirty employees were forced into a corner and French employees repatriated.
France: Sale of Orange Bank: social waste in sight
Thomas Lestavel | Alternatives Économiques | June 27, 2023
The telecom operator, in which the French state holds 23% of shares, wants to liquidate its online bank launched six years ago. The operation raises questions, especially since the chairman of the board of directors of Orange is also a director of BNP Paribas, who might take over and benefit from the 2 million customers.
France: Orange: unions stand up against the restructuring of the store network
Xavier Biseul | ZD Net | April 21, 2023
The telecom operator plans to transfer some of its in-store salespeople to a subsidiary with a collective agreement less favorable to employees. The union is demanding that a social plan be put in place.
Procurement
CorpWatch is still gathering procurement data on Orange at this time.