One more episode in the Orpea series. Three unions (CGT, CFDT and FO) intend to file a complaint against the group of private nursing homes Orpea, which they accuse of “discrimination”. The management would have relied on a union “House” at his command. “We had long had suspicions about unacceptable actions by management, but the testimonies and evidence provided by Victor Castanet’s book will allow us to take legal action”, explains Guillaume Gobet, CGT manager and former cook at Orpea.
The complaint, which must be filed before the end of the month, could target heads of “trade union discrimination” and “obstruction of trade union activity”, specifies Guylain Cabantou, another official of the CGT. Another track envisaged is a complaint for harassment, of which the elected CGT would have been victims on the part of the management, indicates for her part Me Apolline Cagnat, the lawyer in charge of the criminal case.
The CFDT and FO are considering a similar but separate legal approach, indicate their representatives within Orpea.
A “house” union
The unions accuse the management of the group, in turmoil since the publication of a book-investigation which denounces acts of mistreatment in its retirement homes, of having short-circuited them by promoting the emergence and victory in professional elections. of a union “House”, baptized “Rainbow”, as well as Unsa, which they consider subservient to the direction.
This situation “prevents other trade unions from being able to properly defend employees, which distorts the very role of staff representatives”, laments Guillaume Gobet. However, within Orpea, “any employee who will claim their rights, or any behavior likely to harm the profitability of the company, such as demanding additional protections for residents, runs the risk of being sanctioned”, according to the trade unionist. “And if an employee summoned for a sanction is defended by the CGT, he is automatically dismissed”, says Guillaume Gobet.
Independently of the criminal complaints which could soon be filed, the CGT had already begun, even before the publication of the Gravediggers, civil court proceedings for “contest the representativeness and therefore the legitimacy” of the Arc-en-ciel union, explained Etienne Margot-Duclot, the lawyer for the CGT. At first instance, the latter was dismissed by the Nanterre court “for reasons of form”, but the case must be examined in the coming months by the Court of Appeal of Versailles.