The Vannes judicial court annulled a signed agreement between the Breton family group Rocher (formerly Yves Rocher, cosmetics) and two majority unions which planned to eliminate three hundred positions over three years, mainly in Brittany, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned, Thursday November 16 , from consistent sources.
The Force Ouvrière (FO) union had taken the matter to court, which contested this employment and career management agreement (GEPP) signed on January 16, 2023 by the CFE-CGC and the CFTC.
The Vannes court declared the cancellation of this agreement because the CFTC chemicals, mines, textiles and energy federation which had signed it had not fulfilled its obligations to publish the accounts on that date. In their judgment dated November 14, a copy of which AFP consulted, the judges considered that the CFTC’s signature was therefore not valid and that the representativeness threshold of the signatory unions was therefore not met. .
The management of the Rocher group wants to appeal
“We expect management to resume its negotiations”Pierrick Simon, FO departmental secretary of Morbihan, told AFP. “If management wants to eliminate positions, it will have to go through a job protection plan or a voluntary departure plan, but then it will be necessary to take out the checkbook”, he estimated. For Mr. Simon, the GEPP agreement amounted to “have the departure of employees financed by the taxpayer” largely thanks to public schemes.
Requested by AFP, the management of the Rocher group announced its intention to appeal this judgment, noting that the cancellation is due to “an exclusively formal reason linked to the administrative situation of one of the signatory unions”. According to her, “this judgment, however, in no way calls into question the relevance or substantive validity of the measures instituted by this agreement to support employees in changes to their jobs.”
The canceled agreement provided for three hundred job cuts, without redundancies, among the measures spread over three years “to adapt the organization of our Breton industrial sites and offer professional development prospects to employees”management informed AFP in January.
The Rocher group highlighted “exogenous cyclical elements – Covid, the geopolitical situation, inflation, etc. – and endogenous – the fall in mail order sales (VPC)” having “weakened the group”.
In addition to its cosmetics brand, Yves Rocher, the Rocher group, present in more than a hundred countries, owns nine brands, including Arbonne, Petit Bateau and Dr Pierre Ricaud, and employs more than 16,000 people.
The World with AFP