Employees of Peugeot Scooters want to know what sauce they will be eaten. Worried about the turn of events, the works council of the company decided to exercise its right of warning. The procedure, which provides a clear view of the finances of a company through an accountant, will be formally launched Thursday at an extraordinary works council – unless rebounding.
“The new management does not explain where she wants to go,” laments a trade unionist, who fears a social plan in the former division of PSA controlled since 2015 by Mahindra. The Indian industrial holds 51% of the capital, the balance of the inventor of the remaining 103 in the lap of the French car manufacturer.
Located in Mandeure, near Sochaux, Peugeot Scooters changed direction last June. Frédéric Fabre left the handlebar to the Italian Costantino Sambuy, a defector from Piaggio. One year later, employees are still waiting for his strategic plan. Several times rejected, a strategic joint committee on the subject must take place on July 5th. “We understand the concern of employees,” says one to management. We will present at the beginning of July the result of work in progress on the strategy “.
Low rate
On the banks of the Doubs, Peugeot Scooters currently employs around 430 employees, and around twenty temporary workers. The plant has between 60 and 80 scooters a day, and the production volume this year should be at least 20% lower than in 2016. Last year, the company’s net loss was around 12 million. euros, according to the accounts of PSA. Or a little less than the year before.
If a new model is to be assembled on the spot soon, the project of repatriation from China of the production of a small scooter has fizzled and the production notebook for the following years is almost virgin for the moment. “The factory is idling. We do not know what Mahindra wants to do, and PSA is the absent subscribers, “alarmed a union source.
Asked at the end of March about this in the National Assembly Carlos Tavares, the boss of PSA, had acknowledged that the Peugeot Scooters issue was “serious” and that the company was experiencing “difficulties”. “We are at the disposal of our Indian partner to support its recovery plan. We will help if we are asked. But Mahindra has the keys to the business, “he said.