Scopelec employees worried about their future, deputies concerned
It’s time to mobilize. On the side of Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, the employees of the company Scopelec, threatened with receivership, have problems their concern. Of the NUPES deputies of Haute-Garonnesuch as Hadrien Clouet and Anne Stambach, as well as the deputy of the Somme, François Ruffin, were also present during the mobilization of the employees.
500 jobs at risk
Since 1973, scopelec is the oldest French cooperative. Specializing in network installation, Scopelec is an Orange subcontractor. Its services have also been requested in the context of the deployment of the optical fiber. Indeed, the cooperative maintains the copper network and deploys fiber for Orange. Today, nearly 500 employees based in Occitania see their jobs threatened. At issue: the loss of two large contracts with the telephone operator.
Last spring, an agreement was reached with Orange, but on July 22, the operator no longer guaranteed the turnover initially planned. Despite the commitments, Orange canceled its contracts, amounting to 150 million euros per year less for Scopelec, or 40% of turnover. The employees of the cooperative thus hope for help from Orange or the State to avoid losing their jobs.
At the demonstration sites, five deputies from Haute-Garonne de la Nupes (Anne Stambach-Terrenoir, Karen Erodi, Christophe Bex, François Piquemal and Hadrien Clouet) were present, to support the employees affected by the situation. The media deputy Insoumis François Ruffin also supported the employees on Monday, September 19:
Scopelec is a symbol, 3,600 employees grouped together in the first cooperative in France and who risk finding themselves self-employed by force, to undergo the law of the jungle”, lamented the deputy of the Somme.
The situation also caused a reaction Georges Meric, the president of the departmental council of Haute-Garonne, who joins the concern of the employees. “Today Scopelec sees its business threatened due to the Orange operator’s failure to comply with the agreement reached a few weeks ago as part of the company’s safeguard procedure. The State, the largest shareholder in ‘ Orange, must assume its responsibilities and enjoin the operator to keep its commitment with Scopelec […]“Says the elected PS Haut-Garonne.
20 million euros to be collected in one week
The loss of a major contract with Orange put the cooperative in great difficulty. scopelec now only has one week left to find the 20 million euros that would avoid his placement in receivership.
It is of course Emmanuel Macron, the government, and therefore the State, Orange’s largest shareholder, who decide in the last resort. They are therefore the ones who allow the first Scop de France to be liquidated: we are asking for a jump”, claim the NUPES deputies in a press release.
According to Scopelec FO union, many competent employees are making their voices heard on Friday 23 September in Paris. The company will be fixed on its situation on September 26, if no agreement with Orange and the State (23% shareholder) is found until then.
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