The discreet restructuring of the SERVICE for Cora leaves employees bitter (Photo LOIC VENANCE. AFP)
Internal reclassifications “more or less forced”, a social plan triggered belatedly, of the accompanying measures that promise to be “not worth it”: the discreet restructuring of the after-sales service of Cora, with several hundred relevant items, and leave employees bitter, after years spent in the group.
The distributor, family group not quoted in the stock Exchange, announced in April the removal, for economic reason, of his SERVICE in hypermarkets, 543 employees impacted, including 198 technicians. A reduction in wing started there has already been a few years and that has resulted in layoffs individual or reclassifications non-sustainable, according to testimony of employees collected by the AFP.
The management made a number of interventions of the SERVICE, in particular in domestic appliances, “very large decrease”, with “21% over the past six years”.
In April, Cora has not initiated a backup plan of employment (PSE), including “repositioning” internal, with a change in the contract of employment, and speaking of “evolving professions” with the creation of a “services division”.
However, a large part of the proposed positions that is more or less forced” to employees affected do not correspond to their skills, and in particular to those of the technicians, ” explains Alain, himself a technician with over 18 years of age. These are positions “totally different” and “lower our levels of qualification”, he adds.
To some, it has been proposed to become a pastry chef after training for 10 weeks. “We even got offered places of butcher or grocer” and positions to hourly wage “lower”, explained Thierry, 49 years and more than 25 years of seniority.
To keep a job, many have signed an amendment to their contract of employment – 366 in the direction have “accepted an evolution of their business”, some are left of their own accord. To the other – 88 concerned according to the testimony, 84 according to the direction -, Cora has finished by implementing a PSE in January. 34 technicians had referred to this subject the direction of the end of August.
– outsourcing –
But the accompanying measures are only for the moment “not up to it”, get indignant employees. The latest proposals, the management of which they had knowledge bearing on the “3,500 euros gross” for the training leave, reclassification is not expected “that in five months, compared to 12 in many companies”, says Alain, and the benefits of supra-legal are two months salary for those with less than 30 years of service, three months beyond.
The unions, which hope to “find a consensus with the management in the interest of employees”, especially with “an effort on the training component,” does not want to speak “until the last negotiation meeting on Monday”, said to AFP, Christian Bouet (CFE-CGC) for the inter.
For its part, the leadership of Cora points out that she has “always favoured an approach to the maintenance of employment”, “with continued payment of wages and status”, and that it wished to “avoid” to continue the PES.
A source of association confirms the situation described by the workers, who are “more or less forced to sign new contracts. For her, those who are repositioned will “go from short-term”, but without PSE.
The accounting department at (513 posts) has already been restructured for 2015 to 2017 with this “method”, the employees being “subjected to enormous pressure”, explains Franck, an employee who has compiled a dossier of testimonies for the SERVICE.
Paradox, the SERVICE will be outsourced to a company that will bill “79 euros package for a troubleshooting, “against about 42 euros” in the past Cora’s, is Franck. “Where is the error ? We, too, can make money with a package at 79 euros.”
Cora currently has 60 hypermarkets, mainly in the East and the North-East, to over 18,000 employees. He recorded that in 2016 a turnover of 4.6 billion euros.
