In October 1998, after a year of disputes and discussion, management and trade unions at Perrier in France - part of the Nestlé group - reached agreement on a redundancy programme limiting the number of projected job losses.
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In October 1998, after a year of disputes and discussion, management and trade unions at Perrier in France - part of the Nestlé group - reached agreement on a redundancy programme limiting the number of projected job losses.
In an attempt to address significant losses, totalling FRF 116 million in 1997, the management of Perrier (part of the Swiss-based Nestlé group) has been seeking to reduce drastically the workforce at its plant in Vergèze in the south of France - the site of its mineral water spring - from 2,355 to below 1,700. The management wanted to cut 380 jobs and "externalise" a further 330 by divesting non-core business.
An agreement on Perrier's redundancy programme (plan social) was reached on 1 October 1998, after months of disputes led by the CGT- by far the largest union at Perrier - and the CFE-CGC. The measures provided for in the agreement are designed to rationalise the company's production facilities to clear the way for economic recovery, and to do everything possible to avoid "uncushioned" redundancies for workers affected by an overall cut of the equivalent of 349 full-time positions.
Both parties "accept the implementation of a new plant organisation based on the projects already studied by the joint evaluation committees", set up in summer 1998 "to review and assess the various rationalisation projects from an industrial, economic and financial standpoint" in the different sectors of the plant. The management has committed itself to filling all vacant positions internally, with priority given to those workers whose jobs are lost. The management will also set up "the necessary training programmes". Workers affected by the outsourcing of the manufacture of wooden pallets will be reassigned to other jobs within the company.
The deal reasserts the company's commitment, made in an earlier agreement on 10 July 1998, to implement "voluntary half-time working measures and employee career projects." The new agreement adds an additional measure whereby those workers aged 55 or over on 31 December 2001, who had opted voluntarily for half-time working before 31 December 1998, will be "exempt from work". This exemption will not mean that employment contracts are broken. Finally, the management has committed itself to opening negotiations on the introduction of the "defensive" measures contained in the recent law on the 35-hour working week (FR9806113F). An agreement on this subject must be in place before 31 January 1999.
Il-Eurofound jirrakkomanda li din il-pubblikazzjoni tiġi kkwotata kif ġej.
Eurofound (1998), Redundancy programme agreed at Perrier, article.
