2023-06-12 20:12:07
As a sign of the uncertainties surrounding the future of Casino, the elected representatives of the distributor’s staff have launched a procedure of “economic alert right” in order to obtain clarification on the situation of the company, in financial difficulties.
The representative trade union organizations have agreed ” unanimously “ to stimulate this procedure, which reflects the concerns of employees and allows them to ask management for explanations. An expert has been appointed in this context, AFP learned on Monday June 12 from three distributor unions employing 200,000 people worldwide, including more than 50,000 in France.
“Possible right of alert”
As part of this procedure, “two sheets of questions were given to the management” Distribution Casino France (DCF), the entity where Casino’s activity in France is housed. This, in order to know in more detail the economic situation of the distributor of Saint-Etienne origin. “When we have the answers from management, we will trigger the right to alert procedure”says Nathalie Devienne, from the first organization of the SNTA-FO group.
“We have to go through this to trigger a possible right of alert”explains for his part Jean-Luc Farfal, group delegate for the CFDT, concerned about “leave this” of the distributor, which is worth to him to have entered at the end of May in a procedure of renegotiation, known as conciliation, with his creditors. Frédéric Buisson, of the UNSA, also confirmed the launch of this procedure.
Letter to employees
“During the CSEC meeting, it voted for an expert report on the store disposal project” at Intermarchés, “which could lead to a right to alert but to date this procedure has not been voted on”indicated the communication department of the Casino brands.
For his part, the boss of the group Jean-Charles Naouri sent a letter to the employees on Monday, in which he assures of his “total determination to overcome this ordeal and preserve the interests of Casino”.
Casino’s Central Social and Economic Committee (CSEC) was convened on Monday to study the list of stores that will be sold to competitor Intermarché, the third largest supermarket chain in France.
119 stores sold
57 stores must be sold by the end of the year, including 10 hypermarkets, according to information from the specialized media LSA confirmed Monday by several sources. However, the list may change following examination by the Competition Authority in particular.
A total of 119 stores, located mainly outside Casino’s key business areas (Ile-de-France, Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) must be sold since, in addition to the 57 mentioned above, 62 should be sold within three years.
The operation is a reason for concern for the representatives of the employees concerned by this change of sign because at Intermarché, the social policy depends on each store owner, the sign being a group of independents. This store transfer is only one episode of a long soap opera on the future of Casino, which interests the entire sector and arouses the interest of several suitors.
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