Nearly 800 ex-employees of the Goodyear factory in Amiens-Nord will receive compensation at least equivalent to their last six months of gross salary, after Thursday's conviction of Goodyear France for unfair dismissal, we learned on Friday from judicial source.
Among the 831 employees who attacked the company with industrial tribunal six years after the closing of the factory, 789 had requested compensation for the unfair dismissal, but 15 have "not obtained their cause".
Read also: Goodyear sentenced for unfair dismissal of 832 employees at its ex-factory in Amiens
The others had only made requests relating to "break times" or to acts of "harassment", and were dismissed. An employee, who initially brought the number of claimants to 832, for his part withdrew "during the procedure".
Goodyear France "motivated its decision to close the Amiens-Nord plant not by economic difficulties encountered by the Goodyear group, but (...) by a reorganization intended to safeguard the group's competitiveness in the sectors of activity of tires for passenger vehicles and for agricultural machinery ”, one can read in one of the 831 judgments, consulted by AFP.
Layoffs in 2014
As the redundancies took place in 2014 - and therefore before a change in legislation in 2017 - and Goodyear France being part of a global group headquartered in the United States, the economic difficulties of the French subsidiary alone "are not enough to justify" the economic motive, specified the departing judge.
"In view of the insufficient evidence relating to the consequences of the Goodyear group's indebtedness, and information contradicting the allegation of a threat to the group's competitiveness in 2014 (...) it must be considered that the existence of a threat to the group's competitiveness in 2014 is insufficiently characterized by the employer, ”he said.
"It should be noted, notwithstanding the deficit situation of the establishment of Amiens-Nord, that the dismissal (...) was devoid of any real and serious cause", he thus decided.
Goodyear France is ordered to pay this employee 14,873.96 euros, corresponding to the equivalent of his last six months of gross salary, ie the legal minimum.
The industrial tribunals justify this amount in particular with regard to the severance payments already paid in 2014, which "corresponded to a scale going far beyond" the collective agreement, and "added to a vast scheme for reclassification assistance "
On the other hand, the judges dismiss the employees of all the other requests, relating in particular to acts of harassment or to breaks.
