1st disengagement in the Bénéteau factory in Challans
At the beginning of September 2020, the Bénéteau Group's management presented its industrial policy to deal with the crisis in the boating market and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. It then announced the launch of negotiations for job protection plans (PES) and the closure of 4 plants worldwide . Whilst the discussions are proving complex according to the unions, the Challans factory in the Vendée experienced its first stoppage on Tuesday 1st December. " We handed out a leaflet to the employees indicating that if management did not react we would consider declutches, but they did not wait and declutched the same day. "explains Emmanuel Landreau, elected CFDT trade union representative at SPBI, the production subsidiary grouping together the Bénéteau Group's factories in the Vendée.
3 blocking points with the Bénéteau Group's management
The plan proposed by the Bénéteau Group's management provides for the closure of plants and the mobility of its production workers to other sites. Certain indirect labor positions will be eliminated. For the trade union leader, the conditions offered to the employees affected are not satisfactory, even though the consequences of the crisis seem weaker than anticipated in the yachting sector. " For us, there was a willingness to reorganize even before Covid-19. Moreover, the figures are rather better than the forecasts at the beginning of the crisis. We're saving the furniture quite well. So, even if things are moving forward, negotiations are difficult, particularly concerning the supra-legal redundancy pay, the rapid reclassification pay. Management's response is so minimal and some things are very far from what is being done in other social plans. The group has a strong backbone and needs the employees to continue production. If they leave, it will have to resort to temporary workers who will have to be trained "says Emmanuel Landreau.
If it confirms the topics under discussion for which negotiations remain open, management refuses to use Covid-19 as an alibi for its redundancy plan. It evokes a coincidence of two communications in September 2020: that of the 5-year strategic plan Let's Go Beyond, planned in the spring but postponed and adjusted following the Covid, and that of the necessary adaptation measures for productive capacities in the face of the crisis. It specifies that the drop in the Boat activity in the Vendée is of the order of 30 to 35%, which has necessitated the regrouping of production.
An agreement was reached on the internal mobility bonus, the third sticking point, which is particularly important at the Challans plant. For workers whose factory closes and who have to work at another site, the bonus will range from 1,000 to 6,400 euros gross depending on the distance from the workstation.
Early Calendar for Unions
The meetings between management and the unions follow one another at a rate of 3 per week to complete the process. The aim is to provide visibility on the practical and economic conditions for employees who have to position themselves in terms of mobility or voluntary departure, says the group's communications manager. Management's eagerness to complete the file seems excessive to the CFDT representative. " Negotiations are taking place in all branches of the group, CNB, SPBI, the Habitat division. Each has its own specificities. Jérôme de Metz probably wanted to start the new year on a clean slate, but the current situation does not justify the urgency and scale of the plan "he concludes.
