The Meaux Criminal Court sentenced the Conforama group to a fine of 20,000 euros on Thursday. The furniture brand is found guilty of having recorded and stored data on unionized employees in the early 2010s in a store in the North. The former manager of the Leers store (North) was also found guilty but exempted from punishment.
As requested by the prosecutor, the two defendants were acquitted of the charges for “automated processing of personal data without prior declaration to the Cnil” (National Commission for Computing and Liberties) and “misappropriation of the purpose of a processing of personal data”.
“Conforama will always continue its managerial practices as long as there is no condemnation deterring them”, reacted Manuel Aires, central union representative Force Ouvrière at Conforama. At the heart of this old file, two files found in 2011 and 2012 in the Leers store, since closed and where a majority of the forty employees were unionized.
“Promote Conforama financially”
Inside are “lists of employees with subjective mentions and which refer in particular to union affiliation”, described the president of the 3rd correctional chamber. Among the mentions noted: “R (red, editor’s note) dark CGT”, “demanding … To get out as soon as possible” or “present at the CCE (central works council)”.
For the prosecution, it is a “total diversion” of the strategy of the allies, a managerial concept put in place at the time in the company and aimed at facilitating the implementation of projects by categorizing employees with a color code. , from the “committed” to the “reluctant”. “This was only intended to favor Conforama financially, in terms of productivity, in the management of its teams”, declared prosecutor Léa Dreyfus, before requesting a fine of 20,000 euros against the group.
Conforama’s defense argued that there was no material evidence that the group was the source of the incriminated files. “You have no certainty about the origin of these documents before filing a complaint” from the FO union, said the group’s lawyer, Me Benjamin Grundler. A USB key containing the files was lost during the investigation.