Posted on 19 Nov 2020 at 9:11Updated on 19 Nov 2020 at 9:19
The Renault departure plan is working. The carmaker’s union CFE-CGC announced on Thursday the signing of the agreement on the elimination of 2,500 jobs in engineering and tertiary functions of the group in France, via voluntary departures. An agreement already signed Tuesday by Force Ouvrière, which makes it possible to achieve more than 50% of union representativeness and to validate the text together.
The CFE-CGC is the first trade union organization in Losange. The CFDT (second) and the CGT (third), said they would vote later today on Thursday. They have in theory until Friday evening to do so.
Of the 2,500 jobs lost, “1,900 will ultimately be the subject of a voluntary departure plan, the remaining 600 having been natural departures this year,” according to FO. In addition to voluntary departures by collective contractual termination (RCC), possible between December 2020 and the end of September 2021, the agreement contains a section of “activity exemption” for employees nearing retirement.
This agreement is part of the plan to save more than 2 billion euros over three years, announced at the end of May by the management, which provides for around 15,000 job cuts worldwide, including 4,600 in France. The 2,100 job cuts planned in French factories remain to be negotiated.
Voluntary departures
By signing a text “solely based on voluntary departures”, the CFE-CGC “prevents employees from redundancies via a PSE (job protection plan), which Renault’s situation could have justified”, underlines the union of framing in a press release.
For staff who remain in the company, the text provides for the possibility of training. This component “of retraining and development of skills aims to maintain the level of employability of employees”, underlines the CFE-CGC. “For example, an engineer who works on heat engines can consider a certification training on electric motors,” Guillaume Ribeyre, central union representative of the union, told AFP. At the same time, internal mobility will be facilitated by allowing “inter-business mobility” within the group and “all vacancies will be posted,” he said.