France’s moderate CFE-CGC union says it “deplores” Renault’s decision to postpone the next round of its series of labour negotiations saying the manufacturer is “playing for time.”
Renault has been holding a series of talks with its CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT and FO unions in Paris in a bid to tie the labour bodies to further productivity in exchange for a possible commitment not to close plants in France.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“Following the fourth and last meeting of the year on 11 December, management having unilaterally decided to cancel the 18 December meeting, the CFE-CGC deplores the attitude of management which is continuing to play for time and put pressure on workers,” said the CFE-CGC.
“The next meeting is fixed for 9 January, 2013. The CFE-CGC hopes this ‘Christmas truce’ will allow management to refine its plan, because currently, the CFE-CGC is more than concerned about these talks.”
Renault counters however, it put back the 18 December meeting to allow its plants to close for the Christmas period, with some shutting as early as the start of next week, although others such as Flins, will be working slightly longer to accommodate a ramping up of Clio production.
“We postponed the next meeting for 18 December because we are closing for Christmas, so we needed everyone here to explain everything happening in the negotiations,” a Renault spokesman told just-auto from Paris.
“It is better not to have another meeting this year – the next meeting is 9 January.”
Renault is urgently addressing ways to make its holiday entitlement and training requirements more efficient, with the number of days accumulated in what it says is an “individual time account” being limited to ten per year.
Management is proposing the introduction of a transition account, to which the days already accumulated in the individual time account and training savings account would be transferred as soon as any agreement comes into force.
These days would preferably be taken in the form of work leave before 31 December, 2016. They could also be paid into the collective retirement plan, PERCO, to the limit of 10 days a year.
Renault added the aim was to avoid what it said was capitilisation of 200,000-300,000 days per year, “which erodes the overall performance of the company.”
