Governance. By revealing cases of systemic abuse in nursing homes of the Orpea company, the book investigates by Victor Castanet, The Gravediggers (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros), caused an emotion that goes beyond the ethical questions it raises. It is a system that is brought to light, and if we should wish for a before and after Orpea, it is also to gain insight into the mechanisms of our economy.
Because Orpea offers an anthology of blindness generated by financialized capitalism since the 2000s. Founded in 1989, the company was listed on the stock market in 2002, and it must therefore generate sufficient profits to ensure the valuation of its title. However, the financial market attracts the savings of households who want to ensure a suitable level of retirement. The largest shareholder of Orpea is also the Pension Fund of Canada, which holds 14% of the capital. In short, future retirees hope to finance their possible care by expensive nursing homes by investing in the capital of companies like Orpea; but they do not understand that, to ensure their returns, they must tighten expenses… which deteriorates the quality of nursing homes.
However, Orpea is not a bad student of societal assessment. Its corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy is as ambitious as its growth strategy, and its environmental efforts are as highly rated as its financial results. It subscribes to “good practices” of governance, such as the existence of a CSR committee and two salaried directors on the board of directors, or the certification, from 2023, of 100% of its establishments to ISO standards. Rating agencies have praised this policy with excellent ratings in 2021.
Beyond the Numbers
But this light was too blind and when the brilliant societal showcase was shattered, we realized that even without wanting it, it was masking the essential, that is to say the deterioration of the personal services provided in the day-to-day.
Ongoing surveys will no doubt highlight other blind spots in the system, such as pay gaps between managers and field staff that are so great that they distort the reality of the company as experienced by both others, the opaque relations between Orpea and its political environment, but also our common blindness which relies on the high costs of nursing homes to discharge our responsibility on the staff who accompany our elders.
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