Casino promises “voluntary departure plans” to employees of establishments covered by a job protection plan

“Voluntary departure plans” were promised by representatives of the consortium which will take over Casino to employees of establishments which would be covered by a job protection plan (PSE), the group's inter-union said on Wednesday. In financial difficulties, the Casino distribution group must come under the control, by March/April, of billionaires Daniel Kretinsky and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, backed by the Attestor investment fund.

The management, the consortium and the inter-union met on Wednesday in Saint-Etienne (Loire) to negotiate a method agreement aimed at setting up “a social support component for employees” as part of the sale of supers and hypermarkets. Following this promise, the inter-union asked that these voluntary departure plans be organized over "the entire economic scope of the Casino group" in order to avoid redundancies suffered, deeming it "intolerable" that they be restricted to establishments covered by a PES.

Dismissed employees will be able to benefit from “supra-legal” compensation, reported the inter-union association. This compensation will be “higher than the collective agreement and higher than the collective company agreements”, detailed the representatives of the consortium and of Distribution Casino France (DCF), the entity in which the commercial activity of Casino in France is housed.

“The inter-union demands that this additional compensation be the subject of a precise, quantified and concrete commitment from the consortium which is acceptable to the employees,” she demanded in a press release. The method agreement “will be finalized on February 21,” indicated the inter-union.

On Monday, the hearing which was to examine the safeguard plan for the Casino brands was postponed until February 12 by the Paris commercial court, at the request of the social and economic committee (CSE) which deplores the absence of "real social aspect ". The postponement of the hearing does not disrupt the procedure because the court has until February 25, the end date of the accelerated safeguard period, to validate the rescue plan for the group which still had 50,000 employees in France at the end of 2022.

Françoise Maréchal Thieullent, one of the lawyers of the central CSE of DCF, said she hoped that “commitments will be transmitted or reiterated in court on Monday” in terms of support for employees at risk of losing their jobs. Without an agreement, the inter-union will remain "unfavorable to the decision of the plan (accelerated safeguard, Editor's note) for lack of a real social component in it", she warned.