Scopelec has been in great difficulty since the loss of a large subcontracting contract with Orange.

The company will lay off half a thousand employees and separate from its boss "in the coming months", to hope to get out of the crisis.

This company provided the installation of the optical fiber and the maintenance of the copper network for the former incumbent telecom operator.

It is playing its survival without this market, which provided 40% of its turnover.

The number of laid-off employees should be around 500 to 550, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Wednesday, below the 800 layoffs mentioned for a time.

They are in addition to the more than 1,000 departures (voluntary or employees taken over by other companies in the sector) that have already taken place since the start of the crisis at the end of 2021 for this group of 3,600 employees, said this source.

The loss of Orange markets

“As a result of the loss of the Orange markets, the company will still have to lay off several hundred of its employees, and will seek to implement a social restructuring that best respects its societal commitments within the framework of the safeguard procedure. “, said the group in a press release.

Scopelec also announced the departure "in the coming months" of its chairman of the management board, Thomas Foppiani.

Management has "started the process" to find him a successor.

Its turnover, estimated at 475 million euros in 2021, could fall below 300 million euros without the Orange contract, which expired at the end of March.

Judicial way

Informed in mid-November, the company believes that it has received no warning signs, and has not had time to prepare for the shortfall.

Orange, on the contrary, believes that it has “respected all the deadlines”, with “a notice greater than usual”.

On June 30, Scopelec presented to the Lyon Commercial Court the main lines of its draft safeguard plan, which must be validated a priori in September.

"This plan makes it possible to get out of the crisis situation and is only subject to the final ratification of Orange's commitments", according to management.

Scopelec had also tried the legal route to challenge the breach of contract, without success.

The commercial court in mid-April then the Paris Court of Appeal in late June dismissed the company's claims against Orange.

A mountain of debts

In parallel with the legal proceedings, discussions took place between Scopelec and Orange within the framework of the Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring (Ciri) to try to find a solution.

In mid-May, the telecoms giant had raised a first offer of conciliation, this time offering an additional business volume of 45 million euros for the next 18 months, and the abandonment of 20 million euros of debts.

The state had also abandoned "almost all" of its 100 million euros in debt, and given an "agreement in principle" to suspend the levy of tax and social charges while the rescue plan was finalized.

“For almost 8 months, under the aegis of Ciri, we have been helping find a solution to help Scopelec.

During this period, they never accepted our various offers of support.

We remain of good will but we note the repeated refusals by Scopelec,” said Orange.

Scopelec is, as its name suggests, a cooperative and participatory company (Scop), namely that its employees hold the capital (in this case 74.8%) and the decision-making power.

It was created in 1973, the heyday of worker cooperatives, in Revel (Haute-Garonne).

Economy

Normandy: Angry Orange subcontractors block the installation of optical fiber

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After losing a contract with Orange, the subcontractor Scopelec must lay off 800 employees

  • Economy

  • Orange

  • Telecommunications

  • Dismissal

  • Toulouse

  • Occitania