It’s a stone in the shoe of Christophe Victor, the general director of Dauphiné released, which announced, in November 2023, the implementation of a savings plan for the Grenoble daily newspaper. The regional directorate of the economy, employment, work and solidarity (Dreets) of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region informed the management of the title held by the Ebra group on Thursday March 28 that she refuses to approve the employment protection plan (PSE) which was proposed to her.
The labor administration considers that the assessment of the consequences on employees’ workload is too imprecise. The restructuring plan proposed on February 20 is “likely to accentuate psychosocial risks” within the company due to a “not taken into account or ignorance” initial work situations, according to the Dreets document. The employees remaining after the social plan would thus be “exposed to a heavy workload that the restructuring operation would worsen”.
“An external structure validates what our expertise firm was already saying: we are on the verge of rupturecomments Agnès Briançon, co-first general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ). We have been saying for a long time that there were psychosocial risks not taken into account, poor working conditions, poorly assessed workloads”adds the journalist from Dauphiné released.
Accounts in the red for the first time
For his part, Christophe Victor minimizes the rejection of his plan. “We analyzed the workload department by department. The Dreets wants us to proceed individually and we will quickly provide the necessary details in order to reassure them”assures the leader targeted by a motion of no confidence at the end of January, like Philippe Carli, the president of Ebra.
Weakened by the drop in sales (paid French circulation fell by 6.19% in 2023 compared to 2022), a significant decline in advertising and the delivery crisis, the newspaper’s accounts ended in the red in 2023 for the first time. The title’s management, anticipating a deficit of 4 million euros in 2023, announced, at the end of November, a savings plan amounting to 4.2 million euros.
She wanted to put in place a voluntary departure plan which concerned twenty positions (including six journalists), as well as six departures “natural” not replaced, in return for four job creations and sixteen permanent fixed-term contracts. Vaucluse morningwhich belongs to Dauphiné released, was to be particularly affected, with the elimination of six to ten positions. In Avignon, the newspaper’s offices, opened in 1946, had to close their doors.
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