France-Télécom/Orange: CSR in “Terror”

Author: Fadwa Chaker

Copyrighted content ©

An “anxiety-provoking” social climate

Between 2008 and 2010, a wave of suicides rocked the telecommunications giant France-
Télécom/Orange when more than 39 employees killed themselves in series deploring the
resurgence of work stress and moral harassment. Indeed, following the progressive
privatization of the operator, the company's staff was subjected to "disordered
reorganizations", to "repeated incentives to leave", to "forced geographical mobility" or to
" intimidation manoeuvres", the main purpose of which was to push 22,000 employees
out (i.e. one in five employees of this group, which employed 110,000 people in France at
the time) between 2006 and 2008 and to make 10,000 job changes. business, as part of a
reorganization plan called NExT, for New Experience in Telecommunications. In 2007, the
CEO Didier Lombard had held during a meeting with the executives "I will make the
departures one way or another, by the window or by the door" and to add "even if it means
taking more drastic measures.

These words will be translated into an aggressive strategy of reducing the wage bill
deemed too high for a group that is now private and in search of increased financial
results.
Instability and unease settle in the ranks of employees who find themselves forced to
undergo continuous geographical transfers, to change jobs (some were demoted) in an
anarchic manner, and to face different forms of harassment (an employee could finding
himself without a chair, a desk and even without a colleague on his return from vacation,
recalls a witness at the time).

The suffering of the employees grew as the reorganization of the group unfolded.
Sébastien Crozier, president of CFE-CGC Orange explained: "Suicides were the tip of the
iceberg, the most dramatic, but social suffering (loss of meaning in missions, work
stoppages, depression, etc.) generalized. »

A Strongly Branded CSR policy

However, in the annual reports, France-Télécom was a diligent student of social
responsibility. In 2010, the CSR report displayed "CSR, at the heart of the Group's
strategy" and the company declared itself "a responsible employer" highlighting its
various CSR labels (such as the "Autonomy" label or the VersaillesLab label) . Concern for
the social well-being of stakeholders and ecological balance is clearly announced and
defended in the Group's official communication platforms.
Social Barometers
This concern has resulted in the introduction of "social barometers" published each
semester with the aim of preventing the rise of "psychosocial risks" in the company, and
restoring the appalling image of the group in the eyes of the population. While these
barometers served as a means of communication between General Management and all
employees, not all shared the same vision of the usefulness of such an instrument.
According to the trade unionists, “All these barometers pose a huge methodological
problem. In principle, to be reliable, a survey must be based on a constant representative
sample. It can work on a population scale. But how to measure the evolution of the social
climate in a company like Orange, which registers 7,000 departures per year? This
permanent renewal falsifies the results. Bénédicte Haubold, expert in psychosocial risks
with company management, explains that this type of barometer could be misleading; the
indicators can all be green when there is deep malaise.

A new "wave" in 2014

In 2014, precisely, a new wave of suicides took hold of the Group, bringing the total
number of victims to sixty. After a calmer period of human resources management,
managerial pressures on employees regained the upper hand, renewing the same style of
"management by terror" and raising many questions about the company's social
responsibility strategy and the mechanisms put in place for the execution of this strategy.

Reflection questions:
1- To what extent did France-Télécom's CSR practices contribute to improving the social
climate within the company between 2007 and 2014?
2- Has France-Télécom Orange succeeded in placing CSR “at the heart of its strategy”?
3- Can we say that the management method at France-Telecom Orange was consistent
with its CSR communication?

References :
https://multinationales.org/France-Telecom-le-proces-sans-precedent-d-un-management-deshumanise-soumis-aux
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/telecom/suicides-a-france-telecom/harcelement-moral-et-suicides-chez-france-
telecom-le-long-travail-d-orange-pour-regagner-la-confiance-de-ses-salaries_2906445.html
Rapport RSE détaillé, France télécom Orange 2010. Lien :
https://www.orange.com/fr/content/download/3208/28236/version/3/file/2010_rapport_RSE_FTOrange.pdf
https://multinationales.org/Comment-McDo-et-Decathlon-reussissent-a-se-presenter-comme-les-entreprises-les#nb1
Le Monde. Lien : https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/12/12/france-telecom-la-mecanique-de-la-chaise-
vide_4539636_3224.html?
Témoignage d’un technicien marseillais, victime de suicide en juillet 2009.