In Sandouville, the Renault factory was to reproduce 100% this Monday. But the lines will finally be stopped, and the 1,900 employees and 700 temporary workers expected at home. Following an interim procedure filed by the CGT on April 24, the Le Havre court ordered the carmaker Thursday to temporarily close this utility vehicle assembly site located in Seine-Maritime.
Management had no choice but to execute immediately . Sunday, the group said they wanted to appeal as soon as possible, and relaunch the procedure for informing staff to reopen the site as soon as possible – it will be necessary to count on a good week’s break. The few thousand vans not produced will be caught up in the following weeks.
Thunderclap
This ruling is another thunderbolt for companies worried about the legal risks associated with COVID-19. At Renault, the other union organizations strongly denounced the CGT operation. Even Laurent Berger, the big boss of the CFDT, has his opinion on the subject: “What had happened in Sandouville was a fairly exemplary social dialogue on the resumption of activity in complete safety for workers [… ]. The position of the CGT is irresponsible and unfounded, ”he asserts on France Inter.
What happened at the mouth of the Seine? According to the interim order consulted by “Les Echos”, it was essentially procedural flaws that motivated the judge’s decision, which does not rule on the merits of the health protocol. CSE members were, for example, invited by e-mail and not by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt.
The order thus indicates that “the health, safety and working conditions committee of the establishment has not been convened”. That “the convocation of the CSE is irregular”, and finally that the company “has not given to the members of the CSE all the elements relating to the operational modalities of the activity with a view to resumption”. Consequently, the court condemned Renault “to suspend the resumption of its production […], the time for the effective implementation of each of the aforementioned measures, this resumption not making it possible to ensure the health and safety of workers in the plant facing the risk associated with COVID-19 ”.
New CSE
According to the judgment, Renault will have to convene a new CSE (management intends to use ushers this time), review its risk assessment, or even organize “practical and appropriate” training for “protective equipment” – masks or visors .
“The judgment does not call into question the measures, it is based on elements prior to resumption, and not on findings”, we say to the management Losange, where we add that the antiCovid device put in place follows negotiations carried out at group level, then in France, then finally at each site.
The other stunned unions
Only the CGT had not signed the central agreement relating to the resumption of production. The other union organizations are stunned. “Sandouville is for me one of the best sites in the group for sanitary measures. Are customers not likely to turn to competition if they can no longer produce? “, Worries Guillaume Ribeyre, CFE-CGC central delegate.
Mariette Rih, at FO, fears “the social and economic consequences of this decision”. As for Franck Daout, at CFDT, he points to the impact on employees, some of whom may no longer benefit from partial activity and that the necessary catch-up will undoubtedly cause the obligation to work on Saturdays.
At Renault, the CGT is only the third union in the group since the elections of summer 2019. The CFDT took second position, far behind the leader CFE-CGC. In Sandouville, the CGT remains in the lead, but is not in the majority.
About 1,000 employees had gradually returned to the Sandouville workshops since April 28. The Renault Trafic order books are full. Although negligible on the scale of the year and especially of the pandemic, this remains a new blow for Renault. In bad shape , the group should announce a restructuring plan in the coming weeks.