Following a meeting of the central social and economic committee (CSEC) on Thursday in Saint-Étienne, several union sources at the Casino group announced on Friday, September 6, that the latter would cut more than 3,000 jobs as part of the social plan announced in April. The management of the distribution group refused to confirm or deny these figures, but assured that “Not all the eliminated positions would result in direct layoffs”Until then, it gave a wide range of reductions between 1,293 and 3,267 positions.
During the CSEC on Thursday, the group’s two main entities communicated to the unions the details of the job protection plan (PSE). Distribution Casino France (DCF), which manages the group’s stores and headquarters, plans 2,029 job cuts, and Easydis, its logistics subsidiary, plans 740, with the closure of four warehouses and the sale of two sites, according to the unions.
“In total, more than 3,000 employees are affected”if we add the jobs that will be eliminated in the other companies in the group’s historical sphere, as well as in Monoprix and Franprix, Hervé Preynat, a union representative at Easydis CFDT’s headquarters, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday. Representatives of the other four union organisations represented in the group confirmed these figures.
Sale of more than 260 stores this year
According to an anonymous source from the management, more than 100 applications for early voluntary departure have already been submitted. “and the process continues”. Besides “There will be more than 1,000 positions to fill across the group”that could “mitigate the impact in terms of layoffs”he added.
Casino announced at the beginning of July the sale of 66 large-format stores to the Les Mousquetaires group and Auchan Retail France, as part of an agreement that had already led the group to sell more than 200 hypermarkets and supermarkets to its competitors in the spring.
The trade unions unanimously adopted “unfavorable opinion on the progress of the entire procedure”. Some staff representatives denounce “the weakness of the social aspect, with supra-legal compensation limited to six months of salary for those dismissed with more than twenty years of seniority and reclassification permits set at 70% of the gross salary”.
Other elected officials stand out “insufficient information” during the procedure and uncertainties about “the future of the group” that the consortium of buyers, led by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, wants to refocus on local food retail.
At the end of 2022, Casino still employed around 200,000 people worldwide, including 50,000 in France, before increasing its sales. Its workforce had fallen below 30,000 employees in France, even before the announcement of the social plan.
