TO: Mr Stéphane Richard, Chairman & CEO of Orange, 78, rue Olivier de Serres, Paris 75015, France

TO: Mr Bala Mahadevan, CEO Orange Business Services, Nariman Point 24th Floor, Express Tower, Mumbai, 400099 India

CC. Prof. I. Manna, Director, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, UP, India

We the undersigned petition Orange Business Services whose arm company, M/s Equant Technology Services India Pvt Ltd (ETSIPL), signed a contract with IIT Kanpur effective December 2013 for maintenance of its new telephone infrastructure, to treat the workers fairly by giving them their proper dues and abide by all labour laws and terms of the contract. Our appeal is based on the following facts:

1. Even though, IIT Kanpur has provided enough funds in the contract so that the workers could be paid what they were receiving in the contract that ended in November 2013, ETSIPL has chosen to reduce their gross monthly wages for the same work from Rs. 14307 to Rs. 7951 in December 2013. Only after intervention by the concerned citizens and some efforts by the Institute, it was raised in June 2014 to Rs. 9802 – still a 31% pay cut from their November 2013 wages.

2. ETSIPL may be violating terms of the contract by further subcontracting the work to S2 Infotech Private Ltd. No where in the contract is there any provision for any kind of sub-contracting, and it is clearly stated that ETSIPL is directly responsible for ensuring that all labour laws, including those related to wages / other dues, are followed. Sub-contracting makes this impossible and the extra layer of profit sharing is perhaps being squeezed out from workers’ pockets.

3. ETSIPL has also violated labour laws related to ESI and EPF as well as IIT Kanpur Director’s Office order (DIR/IITK/2013/31 dated May 24th 2013) by not ensuring that the workers are provided with Kanpur based EPF account numbers and they avail ESI facilities locally.

We find the actions by Orange/ETSIPL/S2 on the campus of a public institute of world repute exploitative, disrespectful to the dignity of labour and in violation of human and legal rights. In fact to further corporate profit, workers and their families’ living standard has been forced to decline sharply in the current environment of high inflation. It defies logic and commonsense, and we see no justification that workers in June 2014, for the same work, should be denied a paycheck that they were getting in November 2013.

WE, THEREFORE, REQUEST YOU TO PLEASE:

1. Restore the November 2013 wage level with provision to account for inflation (of 10.92% for 2013), and ensure that ETSIPL, and its subcontractor, follow all the labour laws and institute’s orders in a consistent manner.

2. Compensate the employees for the wages lost, since December 2013.

3. Ensure that workers’ EPF accounts are maintained in Kanpur, and that workers can avail ESI facilities locally.

On behalf of the workers we are demanding fair wages and what the Institute had agreed to pay through the earlier contractor and expected the same or better from the new contractor. A disgruntled workforce is a threat to peace on campus and should be of concern to all of us, in addition to possible threat to Orange Services’ worldwide reputation.

For contract with ESIPL visit: http://iitkcf.appspot.com/cz3WMt

For Workers’ Pay slips visit:http://iitkcf.appspot.com/XF1Wc4

Sincerely,

FOR THE FAIR TREATMENT OF TELEPHONE EXCHANGE WORKERS AT IIT KANPUR