The management of the regional daily Free lunch finally opted for a forced departure plan. GERARD JULIAN
According to the management of the newspaper, this measure is the consequence of the refusal by the majority union to sign the voluntary departure plan.
Three months after announcing the opening of a voluntary departure plan for 45 positions, the management of the regional daily Free lunch finally opted for a forced departure plan, according to an email sent to employees. In this e-mail, consulted on Friday by AFP, Jean-Benoît Baylet, managing director of Free lunchannounced to employees on Thursday the triggering of a Job Protection Plan (PSE) “based on forced departures“. He “will impact, and I deplore it, primarily the youngest employees of the company”he continues, referring to “an extremely serious situation, which forces Midi Libre to move towards the worst-case scenario”.
According to the newspaper’s management, this measure is the consequence of the refusal by the SNJ (National Union of Journalists), the majority union within Free lunch – property of the press group La Dépêche -, to sign the voluntary departure plan announced on December 8. Neither the management of Free lunch nor the SNJ responded to AFP’s requests.
Read also“Midi Libre”: an “essential” reduction in the workforce
According to the email sent to the newspaper’s employees, which qualifies the SNJ’s position as“inexplicable”, the main sticking point was the SNJ’s demand that no forced departures take place if the number of 45 voluntary departures was not reached. A requirement that Jean-Benoît Baylet refused. Also according to this email from management, this PSE will cost “much more expensive for the company, will limit the support of the departing and will maintain in their post other employees who, them, planned to leave the newspaper by benefiting from a significant allowance”.
A division of 700 employees
The plan, presented on December 8 in the extraordinary CSE and called “Renaissance”, predicted a return to a positive result in 2024. After an expected deficit of 1.6 million euros for 2022, the stock anticipates a deficit of 2.8 million euros in 2023, faced with a continued erosion of revenue from broadcasting and advertising, down €8 million and €2 million respectively over four years. Total paid circulation was 79,000 copies in June, up from 96,000 in 2018, according to the Alliance for Press and Media Figures.
The regional daily Free lunch and its departments The Independent (Pyrénées-Orientales and Aude) and Press Center – The Journal de l’Aveyron, grouped within the Journals du Midi, covers the eastern part of the Occitanie region (formerly Languedoc-Roussillon and Aveyron). This division, which employs approximately 700 people, also includes websites, a weekly newspaper, an advertising and communication agency, a printing plant equipped with offset presses and a digital press, and an event service.