‘We don’t understand!’: The astonishment of Sopra Steria employees as it closes its Albi site to consolidate its activities in Toulouse

This morning, on rue Borotra in Albi, in front of the premises of the Sopra Steria site, employees walked off the job for an hour. The reason? They have just learned from their management that the Albigensian branch would be closed to consolidate activities on the Toulouse and Rodez sites. This digital service company, based in Paris, employs 52,000 people worldwide, including 25,000 in France.

“We don’t understand this decision. The Albigensian site is generating very good profits thanks to the projects implemented with Crédit Agricole for many years. Let’s remember that twenty years ago, we were bought by Sopra Steria, while “we were a subsidiary of this bank”, summarizes one of the employees, Christophe Cressan.

For some time, the Paris headquarters had undertaken to find another site in the city, the existing premises being considered too large and too old. “We understood this decision, to reduce their real estate footprint. We even helped them find less expensive and better suited premises,” he adds.

“We don’t really want to do 160 to 200 kilometers a day”

The decision is all the more poorly received by employees as nothing suggested it. “Recently, 10 young people were hired on our site,” underlines Jean-Marc Cressan, local representative of the company. “Honestly, we don’t understand. We were told the decision during a CSE meeting. However, there is no economic reason, since the Albi site is profitable.”

And the timetable for this closure? “This was to be effective in May. But with the appeals filed by the national CSE, this date should be pushed back to September,” indicates the employee representative. “We are determined to fight to stay in Albi and we have a few cards to play,” assures Jean-Marc Ferret.

Because the employees are far from being delighted at the idea of ​​having to leave the site. “Going to work in a huge ‘campus’ in Blagnac, with impersonal premises, is not a dream. Our daily life is here. We accept salaries lower than those of Toulouse residents precisely for this reason”, supports Christophe Cressan, who jokes about the label displayed by the company as “Great Place to Work”.

“Our company never stops communicating about the well-being of its employees. But we don’t really want to travel 160 to 200 kilometers a day to go to work. This generates stress and increases fatigue.”