Carrefour’s strategy, which aims to increase the number of its stores operated under rental management or franchising in France, is under attack from all sides. After the publication of a book, mid-September 2023, entitled Carrefour, the big scam (Editions du Rocher) and in which Jérôme Coulombel, a former executive converted into a defender of franchisees, highlighted the complexity of the contracts which bind the operators to the group, it is a union which, this time, brings the theme to the forefront from the scene.
The services branch of the CFDT announced, Monday March 11, that it had taken the distribution giant before the Evry judicial court, for abusive practice of franchising and rental management. The union is demanding 23 million euros in damages and an end to the transfer of integrated stores under these two operating regimes.
Since the arrival of Alexandre Bompard at the head of the group in July 2017, Carrefour has outsourced the management of several dozen large stores (supermarkets and hypermarkets) through this means each year, its convenience stores being, for the most part, managed under the franchise regime.
Since 2018, “seven successive waves of transitions to lease management have been implemented, covering 305 stores, including 80 hypermarkets, and 23,000 employees”underlines the CFDT in its summons, recalling that the group “directly or indirectly operates more than 200 hypermarkets in France [plus exactement 243]1,071 supermarkets under the Carrefour Market brand and 3,959 convenience stores ». At the end of October 2023, Carrefour announced that in 2024, 16 hypermarkets and 21 supermarkets would be affected, representing a total of nearly 4,000 employees.
“Consequences on working conditions”
The CFDT considers that the outsourcing of points of sale has significant social consequences. The group, which historically operated on an integrated store model and employed around 115,000 employees in 2018, today only has around 85,000 in France, according to the CFDT. However, those who have already left the group’s workforce – according to the law, they retain the benefit of collective agreements for fifteen months – complain “consequences on their working conditions, the increase in hours worked on Sundays, their remuneration…”, explains Sylvain Macé, national secretary of CFDT-Services. The union has calculated that on average, employees lose 2,300 euros per year, in particular because they no longer receive profit sharing and profit-sharing.
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