The coronavirus crisis is straining relations at Carrefour. In letters addressed individually Saturday to employees exercising their right of withdrawal, the management of the warehouse of Ploufragan (Côtes d'Armor) threatened them with deductions from wages and disciplinary procedures "which could lead to a sanction" in case they would not resume work, according to our information.
The day before, union representatives and members of management had raised a right of alert following the management's refusal to distribute masks, presumably available on the site. Right of alert and right of withdrawal can be exercised by any employee who judges that he is at work in "serious and imminent danger".
Protection retention
In the letter delivered by hand and that Le Parisien consulted, the site director said he believed that "the right of withdrawal is not justified", Carrefour Supply Chain having "implemented all the provisions of the Labor Code as well as government recommendations (...) by having informed and protected its collaborators against the coronavirus ”.
The letter contains a list of measures taken by Carrefour Supply Chain (display on barrier gestures, provision of hydroalcoholic gel, cleaning of "reinforced" premises ...), while evoking the "fact of not having made available protective masks ”.
According to the text of the right of alert co-signed by the site director, it is indicated that the latter "received this morning (Editor's note: Friday) 2100 masks in order to protect employees from the Covid-19". "This informs us during our brief that he was asked not to distribute them," continues the document which we have seen.
"Several million in a few hours"
Who opposes the provision of masks? "Management told us it was a national decision," said Alain Mahé, CGT representative in Ploufragan. Restocking problem in warehouses? "They arrived everywhere. But we are told that we are waiting for the peak of the epidemic, ”says Denis Tizon, CGT central union delegate from LCM, the logistics branch of Carrefour.
When contacted, Carrefour management declared that they were not aware of any decision not to distribute the masks in the warehouses. “We have ordered more than 20 million masks. There are several million arriving in a few hours, "she said.
Friday, March 20, Bercy explained that the masks of the large distribution would no longer be requisitioned for caregivers. The Carrefour group had announced in the wake of orders for masks.
More than 250 employees in the Gard?
On the sanctions agitated by the management of Ploufragan, the group calms the game: “In no case, the deductions on wages were not carried out because we always always all resolved by the dialogue. In the Côtes d'Armor, the CGT says it has not received the same guarantees. But “if there are deductions, we will go to court. It is out of the question for an employee to lose money, ”warns Denis Tizon.
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According to the union, 26 warehouse workers exercised their right of withdrawal on Friday in Ploufragan including twenty who would have returned to work on Saturday. The management mentions around thirty employees who have used this right across the group, without specifying the number of warehouses concerned.
But according to a union representative from the Saint-Gilles warehouse in Gard, more than half of the 500 employees of this other logistics platform did not go to their posts on March 16 to protest against measures deemed insufficient . Again, site management has indicated in writing that the right of withdrawal is "not justified". "A hundred employees have exercised their right of withdrawal, but orally," comments the Carrefour group, for whom the requests were, in fact, not valid.
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