PSA continues its cure. This year again, the French car manufacturer intends to reduce its workforce in France – a little less than during the past year and still without dry or forced layoffs.
According to our information, the objective of the group management is to obtain by the end of December 1,900 voluntary departures, including 600 senior leaves, 1,300 secure external mobilities (including through conventional collective breaks), and 1,400 hires on permanent contracts. The announcement must be made this Wednesday afternoon at a central corporate committee. In 2018, PSA targeted 1,300 collective collective breaks, 900 senior leaves and 1,300 new hires. Figures that do not take into account natural departures.
Ratio in free fall
In all likelihood, PSA should soon fall below the symbolic mark of 50,000 employees in France, a little more than Renault. At the end of 2017, PSA’s automotive entity had less than 53,000 employees in France, compared with 61,000 in 2013 and 76,000 in 2012 (before the closure of Aulnay). And the payroll ratio on turnover – 11% in 2017 against 15% in 2013-, should also continue to decline.
If management does not release the pressure on employment despite the good financial performance of the moment is that it intends not to relive the financial nightmare of 2011-2013, which had almost sounded the death knell of the Peugeot House and which led to the arrival of Chinese Dongfeng and the state capital. Not to mention the desire to guard against the expected turnaround of the European market and the medium-term consequences of toughening standards and electrification.
“We are conducting a responsible employment policy, in co-construction with our social partners,” says a spokesman for the group. Except for senior leaves, voluntary departures and hirings are balanced, reminds the management. Internally, the word that comes back is “Darwinian”: to stay sharp to be quick to react is the credo of Carlos Tavares, the big boss of the group. PSA also employs some 8,000 temporary workers and service providers. Extra flexibility