Several hundred jobs would be at risk at Castorama and Brico Dépôt (Kingfisher group), especially due to the grouping in Krakow, Poland (Photo PHILIPPE HUGUEN. AFP)
Several hundred jobs would be at risk at Castorama and Brico Depot (group Kingfisher (LON:KGF)) in particular because of the consolidation in Krakow, Poland, activities-accounting and management control of the subsidiaries of the british group, it was learnt on Monday from union sources.
According to FO and the CGT, the general manager of the Kingfisher group, the French Véronique Laury, announced last Wednesday, in a video released in all of the companies, this consolidation in a shared services centre in Krakow.
In Castorama, the FO evaluates to “about 500” the number of jobs threatened in total, with “200 to 250” at the headquarters of Templemars (Nord), indicated to the AFP its representative Jean-Paul Gathier. “They tell us that these trades (accounting, management control, editor’s note) will disappear by the end of 2018”, with a negotiation on a backup plan of employment (PSE) provided for “early 2018,” he said.
“The perimeter has not been communicated” but “several hundred” positions are threatened, with some administrative staff in the store in which the job cuts were “already settled”, said of his side Nicolas Euzenot (CGT). “And we feel that the ads are not finite”.
At Brico Dépôt, “40 to 50 people are expected to be impacted,” according to Patrice Herrerías (FO). “We don’t know yet if the administrative staff in the store” will be, he added.
Requested, the executive of Castorama had not responded by the end of the day.
The CGT denounces the “policy of defatting to earn money on the reduction of the wage bill to give more and more to the shareholders !!!”, while the FO disagrees with a restructuring “sacrificing” employees “are seen as costs” and “requested to become a low cost”.
“After the professions of accounting, management control, other occupations are likely to disappear”, is also afraid of the FO.
Kingfisher announced in September that a decline of 8.1% of its first-half net profit to 295 million pounds (€332 million), he has put on the account of problems of supply of some products and the sales still low in France.
According to FO, Castorama employs 13,000 employees and 103 stores and Brico Dépôt, its “little brother low-cost”, 121 points of sale.
