Orpea
Profile
Orpea is a major operator of care homes and clinics across Europe. Founded by Dr. Jean-Claude Marian in 1989, it has been criticized for care home residents in France, union repression and embezzlement of public funds. Two years after Orpea bought up a home in Boissise-le-Roi in 2013, 28 families wrote to the Minister of Health to complain that the quality of care provided to residents had deteriorated because the company did not employ enough staff. Similar allegations were brought against Orpea at homes in Le Mans and Schiltigheim in 2016; in Niort and Échillais in 2017; and in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2018. In Schiltigheim, Orpea was accused of changing the diapers of the elderly just once a day and changing bandages just once a week.
Retirement homes, care clinics
Violations
Violation data is still being gathered for Orpea Groupe at this time.
Stories
- The Gravediggers: Revelations About the System That Abuses Our Elders by Victor Castanet (2022)
- Caring for People or for Profit? The Financial Engineering & Real Estate Investment by Groupe Orpea by CICTAR, Fédération Santé Action Social CGT and Fédération CFDT Santé-Sociaux (2022)
- Crazy dough but for whom? pandemic magic money by Olivier Petitjean and Maxime Combes (2022)
- Shame! The nursing home scandal by Manuel Rico (2021)
- Our Health, Their Profit? Case Studies on Union Busting by Healthcare Corporations and Trade Union Resistance by Lucy Redler/Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (2021)
- Privatising our future: an overview of privatisation, marketisation and commercialisation of social services in Europe by Jane Lethbridge/European Public Service Union (2021)
- When the market becomes deadly: How pressure towards privatisation of health and long-term care put Europe on a poor footing for a pandemic by Corporate Europe Observatory (2021)
- ORPEA in the long-term care sector: company strategy and working conditions by Jane Lethbridge/European Public Service Union (2018)
Activism
France: After 45 days of strike, the care workers of Domidom in Caen won their case
Margaux Rousset | Le Bonhomme Libre | December 2, 2022
After 45 days of fighting, the ten carers from Domidom (Orpea group) have signed an agreement with management.
France: Orpea: nearly 500 employees on strike in 30 establishments this Friday, according to the CGT
France TV Info | June 3, 2022
The employees launched a strike after the decision taken in mid-May by Orpea not to pay them a profit-sharing bonus in 2022.
France: After the Orpea scandal, nursing homes on strike: "We can't take this assembly line work anymore!"
Cassandre Leray | Libération | March 8, 2022
Nearly 200 people gathered Tuesday morning in front of the Orpea headquarters in Puteaux. The staff of nursing homes, from both the public and private sector, denounced the suffering of employees and the mistreatment of residents.
France: Orpea: employees of a nursing home near Marseille on strike
Stéphane Burgatt | Europe 1 | January 28, 2022
Employees of an Orpea retirement home, near Marseille, expressed their anger on Thursday by going on a two-hour strike. A first in the history of their establishment. They denounce "institutional mistreatment" caused by a glaring lack of means.
Spain: Workers protest against private care homes
Crónica Madrid | November 22, 2021
They will start this Monday, at 4:30 p.m., at the Orpea Aravaca Residence, where they maintain that "there have been three dismissals and seven sanctions against nursing assistants," the union said in a statement.
Strike in Belgian ORPEA elderly home – lack of staff hurts quality of care
European Public Service Union | March 4, 2020
Workers in an elderly care home of the French multinational ORPEA in the town of Waterloo organized a strike picket 3 March. They expressed their distress over the lack of staff which impacts on the quality of the care delivered. This increases the workload and leads to stress for workers...
UNI Affiliates Protest at Orpea’s Illegal Dismissal of Union Representative in Poland and its Anti-Union Behaviour
UNI Global Union | June 4, 2019
The unions are calling on Orpea to immediately reinstate Anna Bacia who was dismissed on trumped up charges, solely because she became a union representative. Anna, a physiotherapist with 16 years-service at Orpea, and a single mother of two children, was sacked on 10th April.
Health workers and unions protest against anti-union practices of the ORPEA group in Germany
European Public Service Union | September 28, 2018
Today health workers and their trade unions organise a protest and mobilisation in Berlin against the anti-union practices of the ORPEA multinational care company. Jan Willem Goudriaan, General Secretary of EPSU, will be one of the speakers, together with colleagues from ver.di.
Spain: Workers at Orpea nursing home in Marbella protest demanding decent working conditions
M95 Televisión | June 27, 2018
More than thirty workers from the Orpea Group's nursing home in Puerto Banús protested this Tuesday against the company's repeated labor violations.
France: Niort: strike day at the Orpea Sevret nursing home
Coralie Roland | France TV Info | November 15, 2017
A day of strikes was organized this Wednesday by employees of the Orpea Sevret nursing home in Niort. According to them, working conditions have recently deteriorated considerably in this establishment.
International:
- European Public Service Union (EPSU)
- European Network of Corporate Observatories (ENCO)
- UNI Global Union
- UNI Europa
France:
- Workers' Force (FO)
- General Confederation of Labor (CGT)
- French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT)
- National Center of Employees (CNE)
- Union of employees, technicians and managers (SETCa)
Spain:
- Trade Union of Independent Workers and Public Servants (CSIF)
- Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (CCOO)
Portugal:
Austria:
Other:
- United Services Trade Union (Ver.di) - Germany
- Federation of Dutch Trade Union - Netherlands
- Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL) - Italy
- ACV Puls Union - Belgium
- Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) - Ireland
- Public Service Union (VPOD/SSA) - Switzerland
- Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL)
& Lawsuits
France: Even more legal proceedings against Orpea
Franck Bouaziz | Libération | January 24, 2023
The company is being prosecuted both for mistreatment of residents and for financial embezzlement. It is also being accused of union repression.
The Orpea scandal: the group of private retirement homes ordered to reimburse 55.8 million euros to the French state
France TV Info | August 12, 2022
The private group of retirement homes, accused of having mistreated residents and embezzled public funds, has been ordered to reimburse the French state a sum of 55.8 million euros...
French police launch searches in disgraced Orpea Group nursing homes
RFI | November 16, 2022
Several searches were launched on Tuesday in establishments belonging to France's Orpea nursing home group, as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations of "institutional abuse".
Investigation: High commissions, unlimited bonuses: revelations about Orpea and its purchasing center in Switzerland
Laetitia Cherel | France TV Info | May 19, 2022
While in some nursing homes of the Orpea group, the meal budget barely exceeds four euros per day, its Swiss headquarters demands significant commissions from its suppliers. Radio France's investigation unit was able to document these practices thanks to unpublished internal documents.
France: 80 family complaints filed against the Orpea group
Nice Matin | April 5, 2022
Nearly 80 complaints from families of residents were filed Monday before the Nanterre public prosecutor's office against the Orpea group, in particular for "endangering others" and "manslaughter", lawyer Sarah Saldmann told AFP, confirming information from Le Parisien.
France: The Orpea Case: The government's investigation report on the private nursing home group is damning
20 Minutes | April 5, 2022
A second investigation which confirms the first. The government published an administrative investigation report on the private nursing home group Orpea on Tuesday. 500 pages which show that “doubt has no place in this affair”, observed the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
Belgium: 4 of the 7 Orpea nursing homes in Brussels that received complaints are now being investigated
L'Avenir | March 2, 2022
Several Brussels nursing homes of the Orpea Group were the subject of complaints in 2021. This was revealed on February 2, 2022 by the Brussels Minister of Health Alain Maron (Ecolo). 7 establishments have been reported out of the 20 (and 1 service residence) owned by the French group in the capital region.
Orpea Ex-CEO Faces Insider-Trading Probe, French Prosecutor Says
Gaspard Sebag | Bloomberg | February 14, 2022
Orpea SA’s former chief executive officer faces an insider-trading investigation into transactions carried out before the publication of a book that contained allegations that the nursing-home operator mistreated elderly people in its care, sending the shares into a tailspin.
Frace: Orpea receives three complaints over "union discrimination"
Libération | February 4, 2022
"We have 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.
France: "I was offered 15 million euros to not publish my investigation", claims Victor Castanet
Sud Ouest | January 26, 2022
His investigation published in the book "The Gravediggers" places the nursing home provider Orpea at the heart of the turmoil. Journalist Victor Castanet admitted to having been pressured not to publish this investigation which exposed the poor living conditions of residents.
France: Paris court will investigate the spies posing as employees of the Orpea group
Timothée Boutry | Le Parisien | January 26, 2015
The Paris court will investigate the curious practices of the private group Orpea-Clinea, a heavyweight in the management of clinics and retirement homes, suspected of having used false employees to spy on its workers.
& Relations
France: Orpea: Hundreds of employees have not been paid since the beginning of the year
20 Minutes | March 6, 2023
Most cases concern employees on fixed-term contracts, which are therefore more precarious. These problems salaries allegedly go as far back as December 2022.
'Putrid odors' and 'massive bedsores': Appalling neglect in Austrian nursing home
Jean-Baptiste Chastand | Le Monde | September 15, 2022
In a report made public on September 8, The Austrian Human Rights Defender revealed serious shortcomings at a Salzburg nursing home owned by the French company Orpea.
France: Orpea: union elections canceled within the care home group
Le Parisien | September 12, 2022
The courts ruled in favor of the CGT, CFDT and FO unions, which demanded new elections.
Spain: CSIF warns that the Orpea residence staff is "physically and mentally exhausted"
Huelga Información | April 20, 2022
The trade union argues that the staff bears a huge work overload since the casualties of the staff are not being covered and most of the staff is performing functions that do not correspond to them. In addition, CSIF explains that several employees on leave of absence must be added to these casualties.
At Orpea’s care homes in France, permanent contracts are nowhere to be found
Leïla Miñano and Benoît Drevet | Investigate Europe | February 2, 2022
Orpea, the leading player in Europe's for-profit elder care industry, has according to an IE investigation, been using irregular employment contracts at its nursing homes in France.
Spain: "You pressed the emergency button and you could die waiting": complaints from residents of Orpea
SAS Madrid | February 2, 2022
"You didn't have time to attend to all the requests, the food was given in a hurry, sometimes causing choking...", says Alejandro Salado, a former employee of Orpea El Escorial.
Belgium: Orpea nursing homes: “During the 34 months of her stay, mum never took a shower”
Frédéric Delepierre | Le Soir | February 1, 2022
She died there at the age of 94 during the December 2020 lockdown. "Because of a lack of care", according to her daughter.
Germany: Layoffs at Celenus: Stunned, Angry, Combative
Ver.di | April 23, 2018
The two dismissed trade unionists at the Celenus (German subsidiary of Orpea) clinic in Bad Langensalza, Thuringia, do not want to back down. Solidarity flows in from all over Germany.
France: Le Mans: employees at nursing home speak out about grotesque working conditions
Boris Hallier | France Bleu | November 8, 2016
Lack of communication, dismissive attitude towards employees, degradation of services... The complaints against the management of the Orpea des Sablons retirement home of the employees are numerous.
France: Spying on employees: a “deal” of 4 million euros was offered to the CGT Union
Mathilde Goanec and Mathilde Mathieu | Mediapart | April 23, 2015
But behind this jargon, the Franco-Canadian company, one of the world's largest operators of retirement homes and private clinics, has in fact injected three "moles" among its employees, responsible for spying on union members in particular.
Belgium: Orpea: "The staff is overloaded and we, the residents, suffer from it"
Julien Vlassenbroeck | RTBF | March 16, 2015
From her small, pretty and comfortable accommodation, Jacqueline (not her real name) welcomes us to her Brussels residence managed by the Orpea group. She tells us how the working conditions seem to have deteriorated over the several years that she has been working here. This is detrimental to the well-being of residents.
France: Abuse called out in a retirement home
Claudia Chin and Nele Vandenbempt | Le Parisien | January 7, 2015
28 families of residents of the Le Village retirement home (managed by Orpea) in Boissise-le-Roi, recently wrote to the Minister of Health, the mayor of Seine-et-Marne, the departmental director of competition and the repression of fraud and finally to the public prosecutor of Melun.
Covid-19
Top investors to call for improved working conditions in care homes
Elizabeth Howcroft | Reuters | March 31, 2021
A group of investors managing a collective $3 trillion in assets will call on operators of nursing homes to improve pay and working standards for care workers, noting the “devastating outcomes” of the Covid-19 pandemic on the industry.
Spain: The first collective lawsuit of relatives for deaths by Covid in nursing homes filed in Jaén
Europa Press | February 18, 2021
Specifically, the lawsuit was brought forward by six family members of residents who died at the Orpea de Andújar Residence (Jaén), where 14 residents died during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Spain.
Spain: The CCOO union condemns the lack of protection against Covid-19 for of the Córdoba care homes
El Día de Córdoba | October 28, 2020
Given the seriousness of the situation and the impact, "we know that medicalization has currently been required due to the high rate of contagion in the Orpea Centro (Córdoba), Orpea Sierra (Córdoba), Vitalia Residence (Alcolea), Domusvi Residence Immaculate Conception (Puente Genil)...
Spain: Almost 50% of the residences of Orpea in the Community of Madrid are under the magnifying glass of the Justice System
Pablo Recio | 65 y más | July 21, 2020
These centers would accumulate more than a hundred deaths from Covid-19, according to workers and relatives, in a region that has been one of the most affected by the virus and where almost 5,000 people have died in nursing homes with coronavirus or related symptoms.
Spain: “My mother was not given the option of going to the hospital to recover”
Ricardo Sánchez Rico | El Norte de Castilla | June 3, 2020
Pilar Martín Calonge did not leave the Orpea care home until she entered the Hortega River to die on April 18 at the age of 83, a victim of the virus, which also infected her husband.
Spain: Relatives and residents of the Orpea Alcobendas care home ask for intervention after 17 deaths
Virginia Gómez | El Mundo | April 10, 2020
Relatives and residents have filed a complaint against the Orpea Alcobendas nursing home for the "negligent" lack of human and material resources that it provides in its fight against the coronavirus.
Spain: Workers at the Orpea Loreto residence in Madrid condemn the company hiding Covid-19 deaths
Fernando Peinado, Juan Diego Quesada and Manuel Viejo | El País | March 22, 2020
The multinational Orpea is hiding an outbreak of coronavirus that has caused at least 16 deaths in ten days at its Loreto nursing home, in the west of Madrid, according to workers' complaints.
Financials
Canadian Pension Funds Are Financing the Exploitation of the Elderly
Tom Fraser | Jacobin | March 20, 2022
The Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) is a 15 percent stakeholder in Orpea. The exposé has put a magnifying glass on the privatized long-term care system and raised an uncomfortable question for Canadians: Why are our retirements contingent upon the exploitation of the elderly?
BlackRock raises stake in scandal-hit French care group Orpea's capital
Dominique Vidalon | Reuters | February 25, 2022
Asset manager BlackRock (BLK.N) crossed the 5% threshold in scandal-hit French elderly care home operator Orpea (ORP.PA) following the purchase of shares on and off the market, stock market watchdog AMF said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.
& Evasion
Lipany holding: Care giant Orpea’s dirty secrets hidden in Luxembourg
Maxence Peigné, Leïla Miñano and Lorenzo Buzzoni | Investigate Europe | May 18, 2022
Orpea, one of the world’s largest care home providers, has relied on an obscure Luxembourg holding named Lipany while expanding in Europe. Since at least 2009, key executives have shifted millions of euros of assets to this parallel structure and committed several irregularities, according to Investigate Europe’s findings.
Europe: For-profit long-term care company uses shell companies to build property empire
National Union of Public and General Employees | February 25, 2022
At the same it was facing allegations of understaffing, diverting public funds and rationing food and sanitary items, the largest French for-profit long-term care company, ORPEA, was using shell companies to expand its European property portfolio, according to a report released this week.
France: The Orpea group of retirement homes targeted by a National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) investigation
Le Parisien | October 5, 2021
A search took place at the headquarters of the group of nursing homes in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine) last March, as part of a preliminary investigation for complicity in tax evasion and aggravated money laundering.
Major Projects
French state-owned bank CDC takes control of Orpea. We must go further for the nationalization of the healthcare sector.
CGT Union | February 6, 2023
The entry of the CDC, and therefore of the French state, into the governance of Orpea is a first concrete action.
The Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) condemns the arrival of Orpea nursing homes in Luxembourg
Maria Monteiro | Luxembourg Times | November 10, 2022
The largest Luxembourgish union deems the government's authorization to Orpea, which is involved in a scandal over the mistreatment of elderly people in France, "incomprehensible".
Luxembourg: Orpea quizzed by family minister amid allegations
Teodor Georgiev | Delano | June 14, 2022
Family minister Corinne Cahen has requested more information from assisted living company Orpea as it looks to open its first care home in Luxembourg amid allegations of mistreatment and embezzlement in France.
Orpea Global Agreement concluded without its unions
Public Service International | April 12, 2022
For Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary, “This agreement impacts many unions and the workers they represent in ORPEA - but without their active involvement or consent. This is unacceptable.”
France: Ousted Orpea CEO Got 2020 Bonus After Missing Growth Targets
Andy Hoffman and Albertina Torsoli | Bloomberg | February 4, 2022
Yves Le Masne, whose departure from Orpea was announced Sunday following revelations in a book alleging mistreatment of residents in some of the company’s nursing homes in France, was paid 118,256 euros ($133,400) in 2020 bonus payments...
Orpea, one of the companies with the highest mortality rate in the first wave, plans to open 15 new centers in Spain
Pablo García | Info Libre | March 29, 2021
Orpea, the French nursing home giant controlled by a Canadian pension fund, was not spared the catastrophe in senior centers a year ago caused by the pandemic.
Nursing home scandal: finally, Orpea will reimburse everything it owes to the French state
TF1 Info | November 22, 2022
The group of private nursing homes announced on Tuesday, November 22, that it finally agreed to reimburse all of the 55.8 million euros in public money demanded of it by the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy (CNSA ), for its past bad practices, most of which it had disputed until now.
France: Orpea Seeks €2 Billion Fresh Funds After Care-Home Scandal
Irene Garcia Perez | Bloomberg | November 4, 2022
Orpea SA plans to ask investors for almost €2 billion ($2 billion) as part of its debt restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter. An equity injection would likely make up about two-thirds of the amount and the rest would come from new senior secured debt, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private information.
UK: Officials question Orpea's Cork hospital plan
Laura Roddy | The Sunday Times | April 12, 2022
Senior government officials have cast doubts on plans by the French healthcare group Orpea, the biggest owner of nursing homes in the country, to build a large rehabilitation hospital in Cork with the creation of hundreds of jobs.
France: Strike at the hospital: the CGT union does not want the private group Orpéa
Richard Raspes | L'Est Républicain | February 25, 2022
Orpea, via its subsidiary Clinea, specialist in aftercare and rehabilitation, has forged a partnership. A new building will be constructed. The group is the subject of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. The CGT is asking for the suspension of the project.
Brazil: Luxury care home on the shores of Lagoa da Tijuca generates protests from neighboring residents
Quintas da Península | December 6, 2017
A group of neighboring residents, fearing possible environmental damage and urban irregularities, approached the Public Prosecutor's Office and organized a petition against the undertaking... The care home will be built by the French group Orpea Clinea, on land that belongs to Carvalho Hosken, builder of the Península.
Procurement
France: Orpea accused of having misused public money in its nursing homes
Solveig Godeluck | Les Echos | March 22, 2022
The General Inspectorates of Social Affairs (IGAS) and Finance (IGF) have indeed confirmed most of the accusations made by journalist Victor Castanet in his investigative book, "Les Fossoyeurs", published at the end of January.
France: The trickle-down effect of public assistance, Orpea style
Sophie Boutboul and Leïla Miñano | Investigate Europe | March 16, 2022
Even as the French state promised "total transparency...especially when the care homes receive public money", former directors of the world’s largest elder care company, Orpea, share how they abused the system for years —under orders from the management.
France: Clinéa: the subsidiary of Orpea which benefits from the creeping privatization of the public hospital
Léo Le Calvez | Basta! Media | March 21, 2022
Subsidiary of Orpea, a company singled out for its management of nursing homes, Clinea is setting up in public hospitals in medium-sized towns. A public-private “cooperation” whose consequences on patients and caregivers are worrying.