40% say "no". Carrefour shareholders approved the remuneration of the group's CEO Alexandre Bompard for 2022 and 2023, but, as last year, with an unusually low score, at the group's general meeting on Friday.
In total, 60.69% of shareholders approved Alexandre Bompard's remuneration in 2022, valued at more than 9 million euros by the CGT - a figure disputed by the group - and 56.75% for the 2023 remuneration.
This is a fairly massive protest, and rare within large groups, even if the remuneration has been approved.
Remuneration criticised by unions
Carrefour submits that the remuneration of its CEO includes elements of so-called "long-term" remuneration, conditional on the achievement of certain objectives.
In addition, the early renewal of the CEO's mandate until 2026, announced at the end of March to "align" him with the distributor's strategic plan, presented last November, was approved but nearly 20% of shareholders voted against.
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Previously, the group's unions, including the CFDT and the CGT, had criticized the remuneration of Alexandre Bompard by comparing it with the social balance sheet of the leader, who arrived at the helm of Carrefour in 2017.
According to Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard's remuneration is divided into a fixed part (€1.5 million), a variable part (up to twice the fixed part) and long-term remuneration (up to "60% of the maximum total remuneration").
"Carnivorous methods" against workers
A remuneration "unacceptable, even indecent", castigated the CGT, which had organized a rally in front of the doors of the general assembly, organized in the small Parisian crown, to "denounce the carnivorous methods" of the group "vis-à-vis the workers".
"It is difficult to explain this remuneration to employees, especially with regard to the company's social policy, the reduction of staff or the transition of stores to lease-management," says Sylvain Macé, CFDT delegate within the group.
The group's unions denounce in this transition from stores to lease-management, a form of franchise system in which Carrefour remains the owner of the business, a low-noise social breakdown. The CFDT estimates that Carrefour's workforce has shrunk by 30,000 people since 2018, from 115,000 to 85,000.
In front of his shareholders, Alexandre Bompard responded by assuring that at the time of his arrival at the head of the group, "all the experts in the sector" said that the hypermarket format "was dead". Since then, Carrefour "has not closed any hypermarket while other players have," he pleaded, saying that "each of the hypermarkets leased has progressed since then." Alexandre Bompard plans to rely more and more on a franchise store operating model.
