Orange moves 300 m in Montpellier: a tension, “invisible” for customers, is “very anxiety-provoking” for employees

La différence entre Jean-Moulin et la rue de la Loge ? Une histoire de convention collective que dénoncent salariés et syndicats. Midi Libre – TANYA CONTRERAS

So why did Orange abandon Grand-rue Jean-Moulin to open this Friday, December 13th, the former Eram premises on rue de la Loge. A better location ? Maybe. But not only that…

270 meters separate the old location from the new one. Because the Orange store will arrive this Friday, December 13th in its new premises. Bye-bye Grand-rue Jean-Moulin, here it is ready to open at 20 rue de la Loge. A simple move ? Not quite. For Orange employees and unions alike, this move is generating real concern, even serious annoyance.

“We are losing too much advantage”

“None of the employees on the main street wanted to go to rue de la Loge,” one of them confided. “We are losing too many benefits. They are presenting this to us as an opportunity, but there is a difference in vacation time, bonuses, pay…”

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The reason is simple: the shop on rue de la Loge was attached to the parent company, on the basis of the late France-Télécom, which still appears on certain employment contracts, based on the collective agreement for telecommunications. The store on rue de la Loge is attached to a new subsidiary: Orange store, with a collective agreement for businesses and services.

“The offer will be the same”

“The offer will be the same, there will be the same contracts, the same offers, individuals and professionals, explains the Sud union.It's invisible to customers but it's very anxiety-provoking for employees even if the company assures us that there will be no layoffs, only redeployments, but there have been no agreements signed with the unions.”

“Moving closer to the more commercial area”

“Orange is not closing a store in Montpellier, it's about moving the store on the main Rue Jean-Moulin to the rue de La Loge to be closer to the more commercial area commercial in this downtown district”, justifies the management, which confirms “transforming its distribution network to better adapt to the evolution of its customers' purchasing behavior”.

She also wants to be reassuring for her employees: “This project to develop the stores is in no way synonymous with layoffs in the distribution sector. The advisors and managers of this new store, experts in our products and services and in excellence in customer experience, are employees of the Orange group."

The store on rue de la Loge will not be the first to depend on Orange store since this is already the case in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, where those in Polygone (saturated since the closure of Jean-Moulin), Lattes and Saint-Clément depend on the parent company. “Orange's goal today is to create subsidiaries,” insists the delegate from Sud. “In Spain, everything is franchised. We are witnessing a dismantling of the company.” Everyone fears today that the next step will be the closure of the Polygone store.

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