2024-07-17 19:32:05
The Nantes supplier of heating equipment Saunier Duval will be the subject of a job security plan (PSE) providing for the elimination of 250 jobs, the director of the site told AFP on Thursday, confirming information from Sea Press. This Saunier Duval company – a subsidiary of the German Vaillant group – which produces heat pumps and gas boilers “has been in crisis since May 2023”, according to its director, Yuna Josse. At the beginning of the afternoon, the workers of the site left the work, according to France Blue.
“In three years, we have gone from a capacity of 20,000 heat pumps to more than 120,000 in June 2023, everything stopped unexpectedly, with a recorded decrease in sales and volumes of over 40%. From October 2023, we are on partial unemployment,” he explained. According to him, the reason is inflation and “decreasing in the real estate market, either in new construction or renovation”. The number of houses assisted by MaPrimeRenov’ has dropped by 15% in 2023.
The site currently has 900 positions. The cuts concern “almost exclusively” part of his company, which currently employs 750 people. Negotiations with the unions will begin in September. After the approval of the plan by the labor inspector, “the first voluntary departures will take place in January 2025”, according to Yuna Josse.
Voluntary departures and review of documents
“We will assess the situation in mid-March to see if voluntary departures are sufficient. We will also take stock of the condition of the market. It is then that we can implement economic reforms,” he explained.
Heat transfer is an air heating or cooling process that involves absorbing calories from the air or ground to heat buildings in addition to electricity. The system emits little greenhouse gas, such as CO2, unlike oil or gas heating.
The CFDT opposed an “extremely violent” declaration
In April, the government introduced an action plan that aims to produce one million heat pumps per year from 2027, which it says will create 45,000 jobs. This production target, which should be possible to triple the current level, was announced in September by President Emmanuel Macron as part of the government’s plan to reduce CO2 emissions.
The CFDT, the majority party, judged the protest “extremely violent”, according to France Blue. He called the company « to recover volumes [de production de chaudières] transferred to Slovakia and Turkey, in order to limit the number of job cuts” in Nantes.
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