Whereas the survey process is continuing to list the sites, which could be entirely or partially closed in France, the employees' CVs are circulating on the science park.
Employees at Nortel Sophia Antipolis are getting more and more worried. Indeed, nothing seems to be decided yet. Discussions continue with Nortel France's management to decide which units in Sophia will be affected by the restructuring plan (see article " Nortel networks could close its unit in Sophia ") or if the overall site could be closed.
During this survey process, listing all the sites that could be closed in France, discussions are difficult. Each site and each unit tries to justify and show that its existence is strategic for the whole company. At Sophia, there are currently 270 employees (a minority of employees has already left the company willingly). They are spread on five units with about two third for Europe Business Center and the customer support centre.
This Business Center part, in charge of demonstrations to clients, seems the first one to be threatened, all the more that terrorist attacks of September 11th in the United States have stopped the business trips. However, if several units worked on strategic poles, it could avoid the total closure of the site of Sophia. The French Riviera is very popular. It attracts top engineers and then allows to build high added value projects. However, because of costs, the temptation is high to now centralise activities in the Parisian region.
Hence the growing worries, which explains that many CVs of Nortel's engineers are currently circulating on the science park. Nevertheless, one problem remains. It doesn't obviously concern the qualification of these engineers who have mostly exceptional competencies. The problem lies in the level of revenues. North-American companies (the American Lucent is in the same case) pay their employees very well.
Levels of annual revenues of some specialised engineers can reach 7 up to 800 KF, excluding bonuses or stock options. It is also difficult in the current economic context to find the same thing on the French Riviera. Besides, most of them are conscious and sometimes ready to accept lower paid positions, just to stay on the site.
Your reactions
It is worth noting, following the publication of this article, an intervention by e-mail from a reader of Sophianet who mentions that all "specialised" engineers at Nortel are far from earning such salaries, "or then, explain clearly what is a "specialised engineer" he wrote. I have myself 10 years experience in the telecom sector and I work in the company mentioned. These amounts exceed more than a half from what I earn, without mentioning the stock options which has no value anymore…before you can make use of it.