This web site was created so that people within and outside the Thales Group can appreciate how the organisation operates in practice. 

Our purpose is to expose the severe inadequacies within Thales and the apparent unwillingness to live up to the noble ideals set out in it's own Ethical Policy documents, thereby enabling other companies and individuals to avoid falling foul of Thales business practices.

Why publish an Ethical Policy if the business does not intend to abide by it?

IS THALES ETHICAL POLICY JUST

SO MUCH HOT AIR?

We set out a simple challenge to Alex Dorrian, the UK CEO of Thales Group

Will he please explain how what his company did to us is ethical? 

His company lied to us, cheated us and stole designs owned by us.  They refused to discuss it, or explain it, and according to Thales lawyers, there is nothing we can do about it.  That is hardly the point Mr Dorrian!  If you are an ethical business you will do what is right; not hide behind what the law doesn't stop you doing!

In our experience, Thales ethical policy is a triumph of style over substance and actually ignored by staff at all levels.  It sounds good, but in practice Thales is an organisation that is capable of telling blatant lies, cheating and actually stealing from it's suppliers; a process seemingly endorsed and fully supported by 'bully boy' corporate lawyers.  In short Thales knowingly put us out of business and stole the designs for equipment we supplied them!

In truth, this was largely the work of one rogue employee who seemed to have a grudge, but instead of investigating the matter properly, openly and discussing their findings with us, Mr Dorrian's 'ethical' organisation simply referred the matter to their legal team who were interested only in protecting Thales from any legal action with no regard whatsoever for the fate of their supplier.

This is in stark contrast to the caring, inclusive, ethical business described in it's brochures and trumpeted by Alex Dorrian it's UK CEO.  We believe Thales talks so much about Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, because it is nervous of its Arms Trade association and this is seen to be the best way to appease investors and keep them on board.  When it comes to actually doing the right thing, Thales looks only at its own exposure.  We think they asked simply "Can this little supplier afford to take legal action against us?  No? Nothing to worry about then."  Not exactly an ethical stance!  The right questions are:  Did we do the right thing?  Did we behave responsibly? If not, how do we make amends for our behaviour?

We have three specific events that demonstrate Thales disregard for their published policies, all occurring in October 2006:

• Thales cancelled a large and perfectly valid Purchase Order for no reason giving a completely false explanation.  Thales legal team later gave a different but still untrue explanation!  Their legal position is 'we can cancel for any reason', which we question; their ethical position ought to be to to at least give an honest explanation and discuss the impact with their supplier!  
  
  Cancellation 'without cause' is quite different from 'cancellation for any reason' and is certainly not an ethical contract clause in any case.  Indeed very recently a court of appeal upheld a judgment against just such a clause describing it as exorbitant!  We suspect the clause was intended to protect Thales rather than be used to inflict damage on suppliers, nonetheless, that is how they used it. 

• Senior Thales staff told us, at a formal meeting, we had been selected to supply a major contract, running for three years, following which staff from both Purchasing and Legal departments (who were not at the meeting) tried to assert that this was NOT said.  To use a dominant position as both a major corporation and a key customer in this way is highly unethical. 

• During a 5-year period our company developed a number of custom display systems at our own cost which Thales subsequently purchased by part number, as production items.  Their own purchasing staff acknowledge that we owned these designs, the technical staff knew that to be the case, the drawing packs all state "copyright DataSonic Limited", which Thales never challenged, yet the legal department claimed ownership of our designs and had equipment manufactured by third parties using them.  This not only transgresses the ethical policy, it is wholly unlawful!

We are not alone in questioning the validity of Thales 'ethical credentials'.  Written in 2010 and without our first hand experience, an article by Elaine Cohen of BeyondBusiness Ltd suggests "there is little evidence, beyond rhetoric, of embedded processes and practices".  This reflects our direct experience precisely; read the full text here. 

After many years of trying unsuccessfully to obtain some explanations from Thales, we created a PowerPoint Presentation to explain our grievances, it too was ignored.  We now publish a history of the events as a warning to others who could so easily fall foul of Thales practices.

David GILES

Former director & major shareholder

DataSonic Limited

Download a copy of the
Thales Code of Ethics here!

All documents on this site are published in good faith and in the wider public interest.  All logos, trademarks or other copyrights are acknowledged to be the property of thier legal owners.