Xerox agrees redundancy programme and early retirement at 52

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In an attempt to deal with the restructuring of its divisions and the relocation of part of its activities to Ireland, Xerox's French subsidiary has decided to cut its workforce. In October 1998, the company signed two agreements with trade unions, one of which pertains to an early retirement programme funded without government aid.

Xerox, the USA-based copier and document processing group, has decided to restructure its divisions significantly. This includes the relocation of its "hot-line" service from France to Dublin, Ireland, the centralisation of its administrative departments in Paris and the closure of its French head office in Saint Ouen, just outside Paris. The total French workforce of 5,000 will be cut by 206. The five trade unions present in the company (CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT and the CGT-FO) staged a walk-out on 22 September 1998. On 28 October, the CFE-CGC, CFTC and FO signed a redundancy programme. On 5 November, an early retirement agreement was reached with all five unions.

In addition to assistance for employees to move to part-time working or to set up their own business, and transfers of employees to other French Xerox subsidiaries, the redundancy programme also provides for the placement of employees either with distributors or in Ireland. Xerox will also offer a financial assistance package to those workers who opt for "early redundancy" before the reorganisation deadline of 1999 and also to those workers who accept voluntary redundancy from jobs that have not been axed. The early redundancy agreement is on an "entirely voluntary basis" and is offered only to employees who have served with the company for at least five years. The plan is entirely funded without government aid.

Early retirement is being offered to workers aged 52 and over, employed in administrative departments, customer call-centres and at the company's head office and to workers aged 55 and over, employed in the customer service sector of the company. This agreement will be on the table for only a limited period, ending on 31 December 1999. The early retirement allowance will be paid for up to eight years, until retirement age. This allowance will be increased in line with social security pensions and becomes payable following the "mutually agreed" termination of the employment contract, whereby an employee receives early retirement compensation. The retirement allowance represents 70% of the reference salary - up to a ceiling of FRF 350,000 a year - which includes length-of-service bonuses, holiday pay and one extra month's pay at the end of the year. The allowance cannot be lower than FRF 6,500 per month.

In order "to prevent the cessation of activity from bringing a reduction in retirement pensions," Xerox will pay supplementary retirement pension contributions, calculated on the basis of those the employees would have paid had they continued working. The company will also meet contributions for voluntary old-age invalidity insurance, personal health insurance and the social welfare scheme. The workers taking early retirement have only to pay their share of the contributions for the top-up health and surgery scheme and two social security contributions - the "universal social contribution" (Contribution sociale généralisée, CSG) and the "social debt reduction contribution" (Contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale, CRDS).