The CFDT denounces “local relocations”.
The Services branch of the union announced this Monday that it would summon the distribution giant Carrefour before the Evry judicial court, accusing it of selling numerous stores to third-party companies.
In the union's sights, the transition of many stores to rental management and franchising.
“We believe that this method of management, as practiced by Carrefour, does not meet the rules of law and that it has very serious consequences for workers,” explained Sylvain Macé, national secretary of CFDT Services.
🔴The #CFDT is taking @CarrefourGroup to court for abusive practices ▶️ Since 2018, #Carrefour has franchised or leased/managed 305 stores, 23,000 employees have been removed from the group.
For the @CFDT, this is a disguised restructuring.
Explanations👇 https://t.co/RfH8LVrjwE
— CFDT Services (@CFDTservices) March 11, 2024
The union is asking the courts to “prohibit the Carrefour group and the defendant companies from carrying out new rental management or franchise operations within the group”, and to “guarantee this injunction with a fine of 100,000 euros per person”. infringement noted,” according to the text of the injunction.
Since the arrival at the head of Carrefour of CEO Alexandre Bompard in 2017, more than 300 stores have been entrusted to third-party companies, franchisees or tenant managers, which represents, according to the CFDT, 23,000 employees removed from the workforce.
Consequences for employees
The distributor, which has more than 5,000 stores in France, has long presented itself as the country's leading private employer, but it has not communicated for several years on the number of people it employs there.
Staff representative organizations, including the CFDT, have continually criticized the increasingly massive use of franchising and rental management in recent years.
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These terms designate the transfer to third parties of the management of points of sale.
For Carrefour, the movement allows it to maintain its commercial market share while freeing itself from a certain number of expenses, starting with salaries.
In addition, the franchisee obtains its supplies from the group's headquarters, placing the franchising company in the role of wholesaler.
But this is not without consequences for employees.
Once their store has “changed”, they are no longer employed by a large group listed on the CAC 40, but by a smaller structure.
After a transition period, they lose the social benefits negotiated within Carrefour, estimated by the CFDT at 2,000 euros per year on average.
The distributor defends this policy by ensuring that it avoids closures for the least profitable stores, that it revives activity and that it preserves employment.
“Activity is even worse than before”
“The activity is even worse than before,” testifies Pascal Junet, elected CGT to the CSE of the Carrefour de Bercy 2 store in Charenton-le-Pont in the Paris region, transferred to rental management on May 2, 2022. “The figure of "Business is in perpetual decline and the only answer is to say that the payroll is too high."
The CFDT, also doubtful, considers that the contracts concluded with the franchised companies “do not allow sufficient results to be achieved”.
“The model imposed on franchisees and tenant-managers ultimately weighs on employees” who become the only room for maneuver to improve the profitability of the store, believes Sylvain Macé.
The trade unionist joins the analysis of a former executive of the distributor, Jérôme Coulombel, who estimated in a book published in September 2023 that the distributor imposed wholesale prices or external services on franchisees and managers that were too high.
An “association of Carrefour franchisees” announced in January that it had taken the distributor before the Rennes court, regretting “the significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of each party”.
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For Carrefour, Jérôme Coulombel's argument is “contradicted by the attractiveness” of the franchise.
The brand further argues that Jérôme Coulombel's “professional activity” “consists, since his departure, of advising franchisees so that they can join competing groups”.
Another point bristles the unions: that this policy is carried out while Carrefour spends hundreds of millions of euros to remunerate its shareholders.
The distributor, which announced a net profit of 1.66 billion euros for 2023 for 94.1 billion euros in turnover, paid 481 million euros in dividends in 2023, and spent 802 million euros. euros to buy back its shares.
Beyond the CAC 40 giant alone, the CFDT is concerned to see the entire mass distribution sector “moving towards a model which is a form of
local relocation
, where social issues are outsourced”.
Auchan recently said it wanted to move towards more franchising, a model also favored by Casino.
This movement is taking place in a context of strong dynamism among independent store brands, such as the leader E.Leclerc, Intermarché or Système U, where each owner of one or a few stores is free to determine their social policy.