The Carrefour group opens the door to a new staff reduction. The distributor’s unions have a meeting with management on Wednesday, June 7, to discuss a method agreement which will frame the terms of a future plan to reorganize its workforce. In France, this could concern in particular the company’s headquarters in Massy (Essonne), Evry (Essonne), or even Mondeville (Calvados). About 1,000 jobs would be affected.
In internal messaging, the employees of the company’s headquarters were informed on Tuesday, May 30, of the start of a “first stage of social dialogue for the transformation of our headquarters” to achieve a “simpler organization”, “more nimble”, ” more efficient “. No details on the number of positions, nor on the services concerned. And even less on the device envisaged by Carrefour: voluntary departure plan, collective contractual termination, plan to safeguard employment, internal mobility… Process, timetable, legal framework, everything remains to be defined. When questioned, the management refuses to comment.
This new slimming cure worries internally. “Is there a real logic of reorganization with a concrete project behind it, or is the idea just to send people away to reduce personnel costs? »asks Sylvain Macé, CFDT union representative of the group.
Discreet outsourcing movement
For employees, however, this is not a surprise. On November 8, 2022, during the announcement of the four-year strategic plan, called “Carrefour 2026”, the CEO, Alexandre Bompard, had hinted at further cuts in the workforce. “Carrefour needs a simplification shock”, he said. While specifying that this new organization would translate “through significant staff reductions” in the headquarters of the group and that “every country will contribute to it”. This transformation should allow the distributor, established in nearly forty countries, to generate 4 billion euros in savings.
The kick-off of this new plan leaves “a funny atmosphere” with employees “worried”even “disillusioned” by the regular contraction of the wage bill, and by the idea of “recover, once again, the workload” of those who will have left, reports Mr. Macé. Because, since his appointment in July 2017, Mr. Bompard has continued to reduce the group’s workforce. “2,400 positions during the 2018 voluntary departure plan”, “3,000 jobs cut during the collective agreement break in 2019”…, list Mr. Macé for whom cost reduction measures “Go almost exclusively through the payroll or the abolition of employee benefits with lease management”.
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