Alcatel signs an agreement for professional integration of disabled people in France

Paris, July 26, 2006 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced the signing of an agreement with the five French unions (CFDT, CGT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, and FO) to foster professional integration of disabled people. This three-year agreement applies to all 25 Alcatel sites in France.

In the framework of this agreement, Alcatel created a dedicated “Handicap Mission” task force in partnership with the unions. The company has committed to recruiting around 60 disabled people before the end of 2008.

Beyond employment, Alcatel will offer training courses, improve work conditions, and adapt technology as needed to ensure that disabled people can stay on the job.

In addition, Alcatel will host young disabled people in order to give them a first job experience or help them fulfil the requirements of their college or university degrees with a concrete professional experience. Other types of programs geared towards spouses or children of disabled employees are also planned.

“This agreement marks a new step in our goal of integrating people confronted by difficulties into the working world. Our goal is to act as good corporate citizen and we are therefore committed to diversity, tolerance, and equal opportunity for all,” declared Claire Pedini, Senior Vice President of Corporate Human Resources and Communication. “In November 2005, we signed the French Diversity Charter and we have recently announced our participation in the ”Cercle Passeport Promotion Telecom“ which helps young people from economically deprived areas to gain access to telecom engineering schools. Our support of the ”Braillenet“ association, which works to make the web accessible to everyone and favors integration for visually impaired people, also reflects this commitment.”

This agreement, which received approval from the Paris Department of Work, Employment, and Training (in French: le DDTEFP), is the result of the February 11, 2005 law covering rights, equal opportunity, participation in society, and citizenship for disabled people.

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com

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Stéphane Lapeyrade

Corporate Media Relations

Alcatel

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