The specter is getting darker for Casino employees. The unions now fear an “unprecedented social breakdown” within the brand, after a meeting held this Thursday, December 7 in Paris with management and the consortium of buyers. According to the inter-union association of the Saint-Etienne distributor (FO, CGT, CFDT, UNSA, CFE-CGC), these investors who must take control of Casino in the first quarter of 2024 have stated that they “can no longer respect its initial plan of July 2023 “.
The group, which does not see the end of its financial difficulties, agreed with its creditors at the end of July on a restructuring of its debt, accompanied by a change of shareholding with a takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, the Frenchman Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British fund Attestor. But in the meantime, its economic situation has not improved and it indicated last week that it was ready to sell stores if competitors were interested, which raised fears of a “slice sale” of the group to employees.
The representatives of the consortium, Philippe Palazzi, who is expected to become CEO of Casino once the change in shareholding has been carried out, and Denis Olivennes, Daniel Kretinsky’s right-hand man in France, told union representatives this Thursday that they “support the will of the group Casino to sell all hypermarkets and supermarkets”, according to the inter-union. This acceleration of planned disposals can be explained, among other things, by the economic situation of the group, which still had 200,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2022, including 50,000 in France from various brands such as Monoprix or Franprix.
New mobilizations?
The buyers reaffirmed their commitment to taking control of the group. But the trade union organizations estimated that the sale of large formats “will inevitably lead to unprecedented social disruption in headquarters and logistics, as well as deterioration of working conditions in stores”. On Tuesday, a thousand employees of the Casino group, worried about the future of the distributor, had already mobilized in Saint-Etienne, where the distributor’s headquarters are located, and in the Paris region.
The inter-union, which is due to meet this Friday, December 8, reminded AFP that the five organizations making up it could “consider” new mobilizations so that employees “are respected and heard”. She also intends to go next Monday to the Paris commercial court, where a request for extension of the accelerated safeguard period must be examined, on the eve of a central social and economic committee of Distribution Casino France. Another meeting with representatives of the buyers is also planned for December 19 in Saint-Etienne.
Despite Casino’s critical situation, its stores arouse desire: the group says it has received several expressions of interest. Auchan and Intermarché are the only ones to have officially confirmed a large-scale joint offer. Nathalie Devienne, spokesperson (FO) for the inter-union, told AFP that the unions had stressed that it would be necessary to “also look at the support of employees who are going to be transferred” to groups other than Casino, if all or part of the stores are sold. “There is no job loss but their situation will have nothing to do with what they experienced with Casino,” she said. In this context of uncertainty, the group has put in place a “support and listening system for employees”, according to a union source.