(AFP / DAMIEN MEYER)
The new management of the Casino distributor informed staff representatives on Monday that the “new organization of companies” within the group would be communicated on Wednesday, the inter-union declared on Monday while details on workforce reductions are awaited.
“Management indicated that this Wednesday, April 24, all the authorities (CSEC DCF and Easydis) of the historical perimeter would be convened so that their respective managements could provide them with the documents relating to the new organization of the companies that make up the Casino Group,” indicated the inter-union (CGT, CFDT, Unsa, CFE-CGC) in a message.
Distribution Casino France (DCF) brings together the stores under the Casino brand in France and Easydis, the group’s logistics activity.
Both are threatened by workforce reductions since Casino decided to sell most of its large format stores to its competitors Intermarché, Auchan and Carrefour.
The management of the distributor, which came under the control of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his allies Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British fund Attestor at the end of March, did not wish to comment.
The social and economic committees (CSE) of seven companies in the Casino group were invited Monday morning to an “information meeting on the economic situation of the company”, one of the participants told AFP, which generally constitutes the first act of a job protection plan (PSE).
According to this participant, two other meetings should follow, one on Wednesday to reveal the orders of magnitude of the workforce cut within each entity, then another “which will aim to present all of the social plans”.
At the end of March, the new general director Philippe Palazzi indicated in an interview with AFP and Progrès that there were still “hypotheses (to) be refined” before launching the PES. “As soon as we are ready, we will inform the central CSE (social and economic committee) first. And we will undoubtedly draw up a voluntary departure plan,” he said.