It was a year ago. In Alès, in the Gard, the employees of the Crouzet company, one of the world leaders specializing in the manufacture of electric motors and sensors, signed, in pain, a job protection plan, on March 5 2021. The industrialist, one of whose study and production units has been installed at the foot of the Cévennes since 1971, invoked the Covid-19 pandemic to justify this decision, committing the relocation of the activity and of 14 employees in Valence, in the Drôme, at the company’s headquarters, but also resulting in the elimination of 40 jobs and the permanent closure of the Alesian site.
“Even if we accepted it, this plan was made against the advice of the employees. We signed it weary, and we have always disputed the company’s economic argument, since Crouzet was, on the contrary, doing very well”, says Damien Tranier, one of the staff representatives. Finally, 61 employees were made redundant, according to figures reported by staff representatives, and three joined the Drôme site.
The case is now taking a new turn. On January 14, the Drôme labor inspectorate announced that it was invalidating the reason for the “economic dismissal” of six staff representatives. It is this same argument that a majority of employees, now grouped in the Amicale Crouzet Alès (ACA), have decided to take up. The former Crouzet have just filed 40 cases with the industrial tribunal of Alès. With an essential question: did the health crisis, invoked by the company as part of the job protection plan, justify the closure of the Alesian site and the job cuts?
“We had a better result in 2021 than in 2019”
Christian Chalamet, 58, thirty-six of whom worked at Crouzet, worked in the design office. He hopes to obtain compensation: “When the Covid appeared, we were worried about our colleagues from Valencia who worked for aeronautics, and we did not see that it was going to fall on us. Our activity, the engines, was working very well. We had a better result in 2021 than in 2019. We believe that Crouzet lied to us and not only to us… All the aid the company received during the health crisis came from our taxes! »
“Crouzet will find it difficult to justify the existence of an economic threat with a full order book”, Alain Ottan, the lawyer who defends the former employees
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